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Alameda County Jail Reform Settlement Overview:
- Who: Alameda County has reached a class action settlement.
- Why: If the settlement is approved, Alameda County will reportedly make significant changes and improvements at its Santa Rita Jail.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court, where Alameda County is located.
Alameda County has reached a settlement that would require it to implement massive changes designed to better provide for detainees’ mental health and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act at Santa Rita Jail following a class action lawsuit filed in 2018.
The settlement must still be approved by US Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins, who is scheduled to hear the motion in September, reports The Oaklandside. If approved, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office will be required to revise its detainee intake and discharge system, overhaul how it holds detainees, increase staffing, and add further oversight structures.
The agreement also places Alameda County jail under court supervision, called a consent decree, for up to six years, with the potential for an extension if the sheriff’s office is found out of compliance after that period.
Alameda County Jail Reform Settlement Overhauls Several Procedures
If the settlement is approved, changes will be implemented at several levels, starting with when people are booked into Santa Rita Jail, which houses about 2,000 detainees. Changes include mental health screenings at intake, with additional procedures for suicidal detainees and faster access to mental health professionals.
The Alameda County jail release processes will also undergo changes, including coordination with community service providers, housing providers and the detainee’s friends and family; a staff-created and updated release plan for anyone who has been in the jail for more than 72 hours and is receiving mental health treatment; and providing access to a 30-day supply of psychiatric medications upon release.
The sheriff’s office will phase out the use of “safety cells” (furnitureless rooms with a hole in the floor for a toilet), design new suicide restraint cells, and restructure how it determines who gets placed in these rooms while taking a person’s mental health into account. Time restrictions will also be implemented so every inmate gets time outside their cells.
Within a year, a new therapeutic housing unit must be created to house Alameda County jail detainees with serious mental health problems, provide them with more time outside, and offer access to educational and mental health programs, as well as facilitate better coordination with other county mental health providers.
The settlement also requires mental health care to be conducted in confidential settings, as well as updated policies on use of force and restraints.
The Alameda County jail must set up an inmate advisory council, ombudsperson, and an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance coordinator. The ADA coordinator will meet with anyone admitted to the jail with a psychiatric disability to advise the detainee and ensure jail compliance. Additionally, there will be an increase in mental health workers and sheriff’s office employees.
DOJ Eyes on Alameda County Jail Reform Settlement
While this expansive settlement is the product of a class action lawsuit, Alameda County also faces the scrutiny of the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. The DOJ released a report in April 2021 that declared Alameda County’s system of mental health care violates the 8th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution and the ADA.
In its report, the DOJ found that Alameda County has a much higher rate of involuntary psychiatric emergency holds than other California counties and violates the ADA by jailing people with chronic mental health conditions, both issues stemming from a lack of community resources. The DOJ even cites two cases where the county’s intake system led to inmates’ deaths due to a lack of adequate mental health care.
The DOJ has been monitoring negotiations in the Alameda County jail class action, and will likely attempt to reach its own settlement with the county before filing a lawsuit, reports The Oaklandside.
Have you experienced the negligent mental health systems in Alameda County jail or elsewhere? What do you think of this settlement? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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One thought on Alameda County Jail To Undergo Massive Mental Health Reforms Under Proposed Settlement
Also in Lexington assessment prison in the state of Oklahoma also violates the 8th and 14 amendment right of mental and disable prisoners.