{"id":384914,"date":"2025-11-17T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384914\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T09:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T09:40:00","slug":"sheriff-touts-jail-reforms-upgrades-before-civilian-review-board-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384914\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff touts jail reforms, upgrades before civilian review board \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego County last month agreed to pay $16 million<\/a> to the family of Hayden Schuck after his 2022 death in sheriff\u2019s custody, the single largest payout yet in a succession of lawsuits filed over jail deaths in recent years.<\/p>\n

With county lawyers now defending at least 20 additional cases and more settlements expected, Sheriff Kelly Martinez has come under mounting pressure to show she\u2019s making progress in improving medical and mental health care across the county\u2019s seven jails.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Martinez appeared before the Citizens\u2019 Law Enforcement Review Board, the county\u2019s civilian oversight body known as CLERB, to outline steps she\u2019s taken to better care for people in custody.<\/p>\n

CLERB has increasingly become a hub for criticism of the Sheriff\u2019s Office. Each month, family members of people who have died in San Diego jails and their advocates attend the meetings, calling for greater transparency and stronger oversight.<\/p>\n

Brett Kalina, CLERB\u2019s executive officer, told The San Diego Union-Tribune that Martinez\u2019s presentation was requested by the board. It was her second appearance<\/a> since taking office in January 2023.<\/p>\n

Martinez described steps the Sheriff\u2019s Office has taken to improve medical care in jails, like having three directors of nursing \u2014 up from one \u2014\u00a0and hiring certified nursing assistants to ease a shortage of registered nurses.<\/p>\n

Each of the county\u2019s three intake jails now has emergency room-trained\u00a0doctors, she said, who can assess a person\u2019s medical needs immediately upon booking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an improvement from having nursing staff or mental health clinicians attempt to identify medical or mental health issues to relay to a doctor at a later sick call,\u201d a Sheriff\u2019s Office spokesperson said in response to follow-up questions about Martinez\u2019s CLERB presentation.<\/p>\n

Martinez said her office also created new standards for what hospitals must check when a person is taken for medical clearance before booking. Questions about gaps in communication between outside providers and jail intake staff have come up in several lawsuits tied to jail deaths.<\/p>\n

Martinez noted there were no suicides in 2024 and there have been none so far this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus has been on preventing suicides from occurring,\u201d Martinez told the board. \u201cWe\u2019re not taking a victory lap by any means, but we\u2019re very proud of our record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under former Sheriff Bill Gore, whose tenure lasted nearly 13 years, San Diego County jails averaged about three suicides a year, including 22 between 2013 and 2016. The rate was among the highest in the state and contributed to a growing outcry<\/a> over jail conditions.<\/p>\n

After a spate of overdose deaths, the Sheriff\u2019s Office purchased new body scanners, added drug-sniffing dogs and began random screenings to curb smuggling. Medication-assisted treatment is now offered to help ease withdrawal symptoms that drive people to seek out drugs inside jail.<\/p>\n

Martinez said these efforts have reduced the overall amount of drugs being smuggled into jails.<\/p>\n

She also described how the department is using technology to track people with health issues. Two of the county\u2019s largest jails will soon begin testing biometric monitoring devices<\/a> designed to alert staff when someone is in medical distress. The department\u2019s IT division created a phone app that gives deputies instant access to medical records of people they\u2019re checking on.<\/p>\n

Still, challenges remain.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 9, Martinez will present to the Board of Supervisors the findings of a two-year review of jail infrastructure needs. She said the cost of necessary upgrades could reach $1 billion. The Vista Detention Facility, she told CLERB, \u201cneeds to be completely torn down and rebuilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez said Proposition 36 \u2014 the 2024 voter-approved measure that toughened penalties for repeat drug and theft offenses \u2014 has further strained capacity.<\/p>\n

The law has resulted in some 500 more people being detained in her jails, pushing the average daily population to roughly 4,400. Martinez said she will need more deputies, medical staff and mental health clinicians to handle the additional people.<\/p>\n

San Diego County jails have faced scrutiny for years from the media, auditors and civil rights attorneys. The crisis peaked in 2022, when 20 people died in custody, including one man who died just after being granted what\u2019s known as a compassionate release.<\/p>\n

That same year, a state audit found serious and deadly lapses<\/a> in care. Sheriff Gore announced his retirement shortly before it was released.<\/p>\n

\"BrettBrett Kalina, executive officer, center, listens during a CLERB meeting at the San Diego County Administration Center on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in San Diego. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Since Martinez took office, the pace of deaths has slowed,\u00a0but they have not stopped. Thirteen people died in custody in 2023, nine in 2024 and nine more so far this year.<\/p>\n

Among them were two deaths this past July that immediately raised concerns about the jails\u2019 treatment of people with mental or cognitive health problems. According to sworn statements by other men in their unit, Corey Dean<\/a> and Karim Talib<\/a> both died after deputies were repeatedly warned that they needed medical help.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Dean would spend his days screaming and yelling,\u201d Miguel Angel Lopez Altamirano wrote in his declaration. \u201cHe would rub feces on his face and into his beard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he needed serious medical and mental health help,\u201d Lopez Altamirano added. \u201cThe deputies told me there was nothing they could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks after Dean died in the Vista jail, Karim Talib died in a similar manner in the downtown Central Jail. People locked in nearby cells repeatedly told deputies that Talib needed medical attention, but none came, according to sworn testimony.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office is also defending a class-action lawsuit<\/a> challenging the quality of medical care provided to people in San Diego County jails. After more than five years, the trial is scheduled to start early in the new year.<\/p>\n

While the county has already agreed to upgrade jails to comply<\/a> with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, its lawyers are still fighting broader claims that jail conditions amount to unconstitutional neglect.<\/p>\n

A related hearing is scheduled for next week in federal court, where plaintiffs are asking a judge to limit how long people with serious mental illness can be held in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n

That request, filed last month, includes more than a dozen sworn declarations<\/a> from people held in administrative separation \u2014 the sheriff\u2019s term for solitary confinement. Eleven men and three women described receiving little or no mental health treatment and almost no human contact.<\/p>\n

They said they are often confined to their cells for 23 hours a day or more, with toilets that overflow, trash that piles up and infestations of rats and insects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I do get to go into the dayroom, I am placed in a cage and treated like an animal,\u201d wrote detainee Ismael Betancourt. \u201cThe only way that I can socialize while in this cage is through screaming at other people because I am too far away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several detainees said they are never told why they are there or when they might be released to regular housing.<\/p>\n

\"PalomaPaloma Serna speaks during a press conference on a $15 million settlement in connection to the death of her daughter, Elisa Serna, in downtown San Diego on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Elisa Serna, 24, died in 2019 when she was left unattended after collapsing in jail. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

At the CLERB meeting, members pressed Martinez for information about housing placements and other issues that have surfaced in the board\u2019s investigations, such as claims that calls for help via jail intercom systems go ignored.<\/p>\n

Martinez said a review of the housing classification process is underway but acknowledged limits imposed by overcrowding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost everyone has some special classification or issue or concern,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re constantly trying to figure out where we can safely put people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vice Chair Jim Mendelson asked Martinez for data on deputy discipline \u2014 including suspensions, firings and resignations related to misconduct \u2014 which Martinez promised to provide.<\/p>\n

Sixteen members of the public signed up for public comment after Martinez spoke, many of them family members of people who died in custody.<\/p>\n

Paloma Serna, whose daughter Elisa died in the Las Colinas women\u2019s jail in 2019, emphasized that families and community advocates have been driving jail reforms.<\/p>\n

The Serna family received a $14 million settlement<\/a> from the county and another $1 million from a jail medical contractor. The settlement also required the sheriff to institute new training and policy changes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Activist Darwin Fishman echoed Serna\u2019s comments, saying much of the department\u2019s progress stems from the litigation it\u2019s fought, not voluntary reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because of lawsuits \u2014 literally over dead bodies,\u201d he said. \u201cFamilies lost loved ones. The lawsuits forced these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego County last month agreed to pay $16 million to the family of Hayden Schuck after his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":384915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,5295,728,50,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,9235],"class_list":{"0":"post-384914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-watchdog"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115564382401855687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}