This is KPBS Midday Edtion I'm Maureen Cavanaugh the county jails are housing more long-term inmates in the California prison realignment law keeps nonviolent felons in County Jail to serve multiyear sentences instead of going to state prison. But if any of grand jury report even five years after the law went into effect, San Diego County jails are not prepared to house inmates that long. Joining me is Kelly Davis, freelance reporter with the San Diego Union-Tribune was covered California jails to Kelly, welcome back. Thank you, Maureen. What do the grand jury find wrong with County jails? Everything from small things like there should be more hand sanitizer stations for inmates to prevent the spread of illness and bacteria. They could do better on providing exercise equipment for the inmates and a bigger issue like the use of -- well they did not use the word solitary, but in Mister Secretary -- segregation which is like solitary confinement and those inmates getting little time out of their cells and when they are, you know one of the recreation areas that did they can go into, one of the jails, grand jury described it as like an enclosed dog run. Kind of a striking imagery. What do officials say about this not having the equipment and about the way that they handled the inmates? They did not provide an official response to the grand jury report. They will be doing that. They have until I think six weeks to respond or a couple of months to respond. But as far as what they told the grand jurors, for instance, with the hand sanitizer, they said we cannot do that because hand sanitizer has alcohol in it and inmates may drink it and the grand jurors went online and found a couple of places where they could get non-alcoholic or alcohol free cantonment -- hand sanitizer and with fitness equipment, there is this sad, empty room in the central jail that has a single pull up bar and that is where inmates go for recreation exercise time. The jail staff said there is no exercise equipment appropriate for a corrections population. Grandeur is went online and found there is exercise equipment designed specifically for prisons. Inmates are spending up to three years and in some instances more in County Jail? 5-7 years after the longest sentence is 10 years. Not to save that is how long the person will spend but. It's a sentence. Yes compared to before a B109 you would spend no more than one year in jail which was maximum sentence. Grand jury repairs of report on County Jail spit was this one unusually vertical? It was. -- Unusually critical? It was. They are usually come from entry of the Sheriff and they may things that can be fixed -- five things that may be fixed. This dug into major issues, critical of the number of suicides in San Diego jails in 2015. They dug into the importance of family visits and how important that is to an inmate rehabilitation and keeping family connections and how can jails work to make it easier for inmates to have their families, especially children, come visit the they dug into some very significant meaningful issues. As I said, five years into prison realignment. Are any jails in California adapting well to the change? You hear about innovative programs that are happening. There is one jail in Northern California that started training inmates on car repair. They had County vehicles that are being fixed by inmates, saving money. What I hear mostly is jails are struggling with the population that is staying longer in facilities that were not meant to house them long-term and a lot of California jails are old, falling apart so the question is do you replace them or do you find alternatives to incarceration. So largely what I have been hearing is within Eagles he's facing is not unique -- San Diego is expanding not unique. The San Diego County has state funds to pay for changes they may have to make? That was money provided by realignment. And the grand jury issued a second report specifically on prison realignment. What I was surprised to read in the report is apparently there is $25 million that the Sheriff's Department has undesignated money sitting there that could be spent on programming, educational opportunities, maybe making visiting rooms that are more open to the grand jury identified a pot, large pot of money that could go towards some of the changes they were met recommending. While the grand jury was investigating this, jail staff told the grand jury they were committed to evaluating inmate programs and making them better. How are they fearing at that? That was another striking finding. The jail staff said they are committed to best practices but when the grand jury really hammered them on that like let's see some results, found their is no one measuring the success of these different programs they are trying out. There is one program for veterans that the jail is doing well on and looking at recidivism rates among the population. That they are not looking at how other populations are faring and they are not measuring that study and getting a good grip on whether what they are doing is the right thing. As you said, the Sheriff's department is reviewing the grand jury's report. And not commenting now but they have until August 1 for a formal response. I've been speaking with Kelly Davis, freelance reporter with the Senegal Union Tribune. Thank you. -- San Diego Union Tribune.
San Diego County jails are not properly equipped to take care of long-term inmates, a grand jury report said last week, warning jail conditions will likely harm those inmates’ rehabilitation efforts.
Under a 2011 state law, some felons are getting sentenced to jail instead of prison in an effort to reduce prison overcrowding. But many jails have not changed enough to cope with the new population that can stay there for years, according to the report.
While the sheriff’s department, which oversees the jails, offers re-entry programs, the grand jury found they are only available to inmates in their final six months in jail.
“Years spent incarcerated with little mental or physical stimulation will undoubtedly have negative consequences on long-term inmates,” the report said.
The sheriff’s department said it was still reviewing the report and declined to comment. It has until August 1 to offer a formal response.
The grand jury also found most jails lacked basic exercise space and equipment. Jail staff told jurors it was difficult to find acceptable equipment, but jurors noted they were able to find equipment specifically designed for correctional facilities online.
Kelly Davis, a freelance journalist who has reported on San Diego jails, discusses the county’s efforts to deal with long-term inmates on KPBS Midday Edition Monday.
