SLO County blasts federal investigation of jail, calling it ‘stale’ and ‘one-sided’
San Luis Obispo County officials unleashed a scathing critique of a federal investigation that claims the jail violates inmates’ rights and does not provide adequate medical and mental health care, a letter written by the county counsel shows.
On Aug. 31, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report detailing the findings of a multi-year investigation the agency announced in 2018.
The DOJ reported “there is reasonable cause to believe that the jail fails to provide constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care to prisoners, that the jail violates the constitutional rights of prisoners with serious mental illness through its prolonged use of restrictive housing and that the jail violates the constitutional rights of prisoners through the use of excessive force,” according to a previous Tribune story.
However, County Counsel Rita Neal vehemently disagreed with these claims in a Sept. 23 letter her office sent to the DOJ. Neal wrote that the report “is stale, ignores current protocols, policies, and practices, and conflicts with the very statements made by your onsite investigative team.”
Neal and the county also provided a 34-page “supplemental document” illustrating what they see as the report’s “false portrayal” of inmate medical cases, as well as policy changes and corrective actions.
“Rather than consider the state of the jail today and take into consideration the progress that has been made over the the last couple of years, the report is a myopic, one-sided snapshot of a short period of time at the jail ...” Neal wrote.
County disputes results of DOJ investigation
The DOJ began investigating the jail as the facility was in the middle of transitioning its medical and mental health care services to a new private provider, Wellpath.
The federal investigation found “serious lapses in inmate healthcare such as denial of medication, chronically rescheduled appointments, and Wellpath’s staff using long-term seclusion as a response to mental illness-related misbehavior,” The Tribune previously reported.
As a result, inmates dealt with serious medical issues, “including overdoses, infections, and even a miscarriage.”
After the DOJ released its report, Wellpath told The Tribune that the agency’s investigation “does not reflect care currently provided in SLO,” as the investigation covered only the time period during the transition into private medical services.
In her letter, Neal said the county regularly shared progress and changes at the jail with the DOJ. Even so, the DOJ report “is a cookie-cutter template with a preordained outcome back-filled with obsolete and outdated data ...” she wrote.
“The county disputes the DOJ has established patterns or practices equating to constitutional violations,” Neal wrote. “The county was given no opportunity to explain or provide further information regarding the inmate cases (healthcare/use of force/restrictive housing) prior to the report being issued.”
Neal said the county expects to received accreditation by the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare by early 2022, which she describes as “the gold standard for correctional healthcare.”
“The public funds expended by the DOJ in this investigation could have funded new jail facilities, significantly increased medical and mental health services, and eliminated restrictive housing,” Neal wrote. “Instead substantial resources were diverted on both sides to prosecute and defend allegations rather than collaboratively initiate solutions.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
