AnonymousSource: Santa Barbara County Grand Jury
Pursuant to the authority provided by Penal Code §919(b), the Grand Jury shall examine the operations of the jails within the County. The Jury regularly considers the facts and circumstances surrounding inmate deaths in custody, including suicide. This term, the 2021 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury investigated the death in custody of Inmate A, an inmate who hanged himself in his cell in early 2021, just 18 hours after he was arrested at his residence on a warrant issued by Ventura County for a misdemeanor offense. Inmate A was the fourth inmate to commit suicide at the Main Jail in less than three years.
In its investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding the suicide of Inmate A, the Jury determined that the Main Jail intake process requires improvement with respect to recognizing potentially suicidal arrestees, effectively communicating their mental health status to other staff members throughout the process and providing timely mental health services during the nighttime hours. From the time of arrest through housing assignment in the Main Jail, arrestees are processed by a variety of Sheriff’s Office deputies and Wellpath medical professionals. Process-driven improvements in training, communications, and staff availability have the potential to improve outcomes for future arrestees with mental health and substance abuse conditions.
Although the requirements of the Sheriff’s Office Intake Screening Implementation Plan were not fully met, the Jury was pleased to note that improvements are currently underway at the Main Jail, and the new Northern Branch Jail has incorporated design and operational features that will improve the process and hopefully reduce the incidence of future suicides in custody. In addition, the County continues its ongoing efforts to comply fully with the intake screening improvements set forth in the Remedial Plan contained in the 2020 settlement of the Murray v County of Santa Barbara case.
The complete report is posted on the Grand Jury’s website: www.sbcgj.org.
