SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (publ. 12/17/2015, pg. A4)
A story about a meeting of a special citizens commission studying problems at the Santa Clara County jails incorrectly reported that the panel approved a subcommittee to study mental health issues in the jails. The commission made a recommendation, which the county has since followed, to create a mental health subcommittee under another initiative aimed at helping formerly incarcerated people re-enter the community.
SAN JOSE — At the end of another week of shocking claims against Santa Clara County correctional officers — including an allegation that a dozen guards exchanged racist text messages — yet another accusation was lodged Saturday:
Some of the guards retaliate against inmates who file grievances against them.
The latest charge came from a jail chaplain, a deputy public defender, an attorney from the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and members of the public during the third meeting of a citizens commission appointed by the county Board of Supervisors to study the conditions of the county’s three jails and the treatment of its inmates.
“Even to this day, my office receives complaints from inmates who do not feel safe making grievances,” said Alison Brunner, a commission member and representative of the nonprofit law foundation. Even worse, she said, is that some inmates say “they have been actively retaliated against.”
Commissioner Wes Mukoyama, a chaplain at the jail, said that one inmate told him that a “guard recommended he tear up a grievance or he would retaliate.”
The 25-member “blue ribbon” panel also voted Saturday to establish a subcommittee, co-chaired by Judge Steve Manley, to study mental health issues at the jail. The commission at its last meeting had approved a relatively narrow scope of work that excluded mental health — over Manley’s objections.
The commission was created after three guards at the Main Jail were charged with murder in the death of mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree, who was found beaten to death in his cell Aug. 27.
Last week, this newspaper reported that more than a dozen correctional officers, including the head of the correctional officers union, had exchanged racist text messages over the past year. The sheriff’s office also disclosed that inmates have filed more than 300 complaints of excessive force over the past six years, finding only five of them valid, and that guards on one of the night shifts appear to be particularly aggressive.
Representatives from the sheriff’s office, including Capt. David Sepulveda from the Elmwood jail and Lt. Neil Valenzuela from Internal Affairs, on Saturday acknowledged receiving complaints about retaliation. But they told the commission that every complaint is “fully investigated” and that inmate grievances go through several layers of review.
Retired Judge LaDoris Cordell, who heads the commission, started the meeting in the Board of Supervisors chambers Saturday with a moment of silence “in memory of Michael Tyree and others who might have been mistreated in our jails.”
Every head went down. No clicking on iPhones. No shuffling of papers.
Commission member Rick Callender from the NAACP took off his glasses, wiped his eyes and bowed his head. The sheriff, the undersheriff, two county supervisors, three judges, two former inmates and nearly 50 members of the public fell silent for a full, lingering minute.
“We do this so we never forget why we are all here,” Cordell said.
After correctional deputies Jereh Lubrin, Matthew Farris and Rafael Rodriguez were arrested and stripped of their badges in September, Sheriff Laurie Smith denounced them as having “lost their moral compass” and vowed to improve the jails. Smith, a nonvoting member of the commission, has renewed investigations into past complaints of excessive force. And last week Smith announced she was adding another layer of supervision over the night shift that appears to be responsible for an alarming number of excessive force complaints. They are also bringing in more resources for mentally ill inmates.
Capt. Sepulveda raised the ire of at least one commissioner when he explained that complaints about “rudeness and discourtesy” from guards are considered “low level” and can be handled with counseling or other measures, instead of more “formal discipline” reserved for more serious complaints, such as excessive force.
“I do find some of this troubling,” said Erin O’Neill, a commissioner representing San Jose’s independent police auditor. “Discourteousness and rudeness, that downplays the importance of appropriate behavior in custody.”
Members of the panel and the public expressed doubts as to whether the system was working as well as the sheriff’s deputies said it was.
“Having policies and following policies are two different things,” said Christine Ferry, retired director of adult custody mental health for the county’s health system. Speaking during the public comment period, she asked: “How likely is it that an inmate who has been retaliated against is going to refile a grievance?”
Jamie Foberg, a community volunteer who has a friend who is incarcerated, said she knows of four inmates who have been mistreated by guards at the county jails. “The harassment is so intense and the retaliation is so bad, it’s sad and disheartening,” Foberg said. “People have been harmed physically and nothing has been done. There has to be another way to submit a grievance.”
Deputy Public Defender Malorie Melrose Street said she is “gravely concerned” about the lack of confidentiality and allegations of retaliation over the grievance process.
“My clients are throughout the jail. They are being mistreated. They are not getting access to services,” said Street, who took the microphone during the public comment period. The grievance process as it operates now, she said, “is troubling, ineffective and inhumane.”
Staff writer Tracey Kaplan contributed to this report. Contact Julia Prodis Sulek at 408-278-3409. Follow her at twitter.com/juliasulek
