Santa Barbara Grand Jury Probes Myriad Issues Round County
This Yr’s Remaining Experiences Embody Investigations
into In-Custody Deaths and Psychological-Well being Points,
Cybersecurity in College,
and Water District’s Lack of Transparency
by Jack Magargee | August 18, 2023
Yearly, Santa Barbara County’s Civil Grand Jury releases its closing reviews to the general public, with evaluations and proposals for a number of county businesses stemming from investigations over the earlier yr. In 2023, these reviews included investigations into deaths and issues with mental-health assets in Santa Barbara County jails, points with cybersecurity in space colleges, and an absence of transparency with the Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District.
This week, the Impartial breaks down the 2022-2023 Grand Jury Remaining Experiences, that are additionally obtainable in full on-line right here.
‘Each Loss of life in Custody Is a Failure’
In July 2021, a Santa Maria man died by suicide whereas in custody on the Santa Barbara County Predominant Jail. In accordance with the grand jury report, 35-year-old Kean Ardie San Juan Pinon (recognized as “KP” within the report) hung himself in his jail cell simply at some point after his cellmate’s tried suicide. The investigation found that Pinon had been rehoused in the identical cell, alone, the place he had watched his cellmate’s failed suicide try.
The report described Pinon as a recidivist felony who’d been incarcerated a number of instances and suffered from psychological problems and “suicidal ideations.” Wellpath Healthcare, which is among the largest health-care suppliers for prisoners across the county, supplied mental-health help for Pinon throughout his stints at Santa Barbara County Jail. Nevertheless, Wellpath “didn’t share this psychological well being historical past with the Sheriff’s Workplace custody workers” as a result of Wellpath believed that sharing such data was unlawful on the grounds of physician/consumer privilege.
The report said that “extremely related, important information was not shared with the very officers who had been to determine the place KP must be housed.” The Grand Jury asserted that the Sheriff’s Workplace custody workers ought to have identified Pinon’s mental-health fragility. Moreover, the jury discovered “that had KP’s psychological well being historical past been identified, KP wouldn’t have been positioned again into the identical cell, particularly alone, and with out fixed remark.”
In its conclusion, the Grand Jury really helpful that the Santa Barbara County Counsel endure a authorized assessment of the processes and legalities of the “current coordination and communication between Wellpath (or its successors).” Moreover, the report decided that the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Custody workers disclose inmates’ severe psychological well being and medical data on a “must know foundation to the custody workers answerable for making housing and program selections.”
‘A Vicious Cycle: Incarceration of the Severely Mentally Sick’
The 2022-2023 Grand Jury investigated two deaths that occurred on the county’s Northern Department Jail in Santa Maria, which started working in January 2022. The inmates — 37-year-old Edgar Estrada Amezcua, a okay a Edgar Mescua Estrada (known as “EEA” within the report) and Kristina Marie Chermak (known as “KC” and described as 34 years outdated within the report however 35 within the Sheriff’s Workplace’s public discover of her demise) — had been housed in Northern Department Jail, the place every died consequently from fentanyl overdoses. Each Chermak and Amezcua had been identified with extreme psychological sickness and drug dependancy and at separate instances had been decided to be incompetent to face trial (IST), that means they didn’t have the psychological wherewithal to grasp the costs or cooperate cogently with their attorneys.
In accordance with the report, Chermak and Amezcua had been “a number of instances convicted, and sentenced to jail and/or probation” over a interval of longer than a decade. Jail custody officers recognized Chermak’s and Amezcua’s mental-health standing as severely mentally sick (SMI), they usually had been referred to jail mental-health professionals for remedy. It was after their final arrests that they overdosed on fentanyl and died on the Northern Department Jail.
The Grand Jury acknowledged the challenges Santa Barbara group encounters when tasked with offering efficient psychological well being remedy “for the mentally sick instead of the arrest-jail-court-arrest cycle.” The report burdened that county officers and the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Workplace dedicate assets to inmates with mental-health challenges, particularly these with extreme psychological sicknesses, to “divert people into complete group remedy and providers” and to “maintain the non-violent mentally sick out of jail.”
Subsequently, the Grand Jury really helpful from its evaluation that the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Workplace work with the county and its jails’ well being/mental-health-care supplier to develop and publish information on the variety of inmates with mental-health points; the county create price comparability information between arrest-jail-court-arrest cycles and acceptable mental-health diversion packages; and the county present satisfactory assets for mental-health packages for Assisted Outpatient Remedy (Laura’s Legislation) and the CARE Act (Group Help, Restoration, and Empowerment Act), which might be applied in Santa Barbara County no later than December 2024.
‘A Loss of life in Custody: Classes Discovered’
Jonathan Paul Thomas, 45, (known as “JT” within the report) died in a Santa Barbara County Predominant Jail security cell after participating in a bodily battle with Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Workplace Custody Employees, 20 minutes after he was booked. The 2022-2023 Grand Jury investigated the circumstances of Thomas’s arrest, incarceration, and the occasions main as much as and inflicting his demise.
Thomas was arrested on the evening of January 11-12 on a cost of non-injury home violence. In accordance with the report, on the time of his arrest, he was morbidly overweight, had a historical past of drug abuse, and suffered from extreme psychological well being crises, particularly a number of suicide threats and ideation. The report detailed that Thomas’s arresting officers, Wellpath medical workers (mental-health suppliers on obligation on the jail), and custody officers had been conscious that Thomas was affected by a mental-health disaster. Nevertheless, not one of the personnel concerned tried to “present disaster intervention that would have prevented the custody officers’ use of power that evening,” the report states.
Two components of the report had been launched regarding completely different elements of Thomas’s arrest, incarceration, and demise, together with an investigation into the custody workers personnel. Half One discovered that “the regulation enforcement and well being care programs failed to supply JT with a lot wanted pressing psychological well being care intervention.”
Half 1 of the report really helpful the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Workplace and Jail Custody Employees enhance supply of on-site, 24/7 skilled mental-health providers within the Predominant Jail and Northern Department Jail; and broadly enhance regulation enforcement officer and jail medical service suppliers’ mental-health disaster prevention coaching and interagency communication abilities.
Half Two of the report reviewed the investigation performed by the Sheriff’s Workplace and Coroner’s Workplace into the actions of the personnel concerned. The report explicitly states that Thomas “was compelled into an on-stomach inclined restraint maintain that he vigorously resisted,” whereas the post-mortem confirmed Thomas was overweight, suffered from a coronary heart situation, and had a historical past of substance abuse. The Coroner’s Workplace decided that the custody workers’s on-stomach restraint maintain and Thomas’s battle with custody workers was an “oblique trigger” of his demise, compounded by his weight problems and drug use.
Nevertheless, two impartial out-of-county medical consultants interviewed by the Grand Jury said that topics like Thomas — who are suffering from weight problems and different comorbidities — are at an elevated danger of cardiac arrest when in inclined restraint holds and resistance. In accordance with the Grand Jury’s report, “neither the Coroner’s Workplace nor the Santa Barbara District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned or thought of whether or not the on-stomach inclined restraint was a direct explanation for JT’s cardiac arrest.”
Subsequently, the Grand Jury really helpful in Half Two of the report that the Santa Barbara County, Sheriff’s Workplace, and Coroner’s Workplace submit Thomas’s case to the State Lawyer Normal’s Workplace for “reinvestigation as as to if, from a medical perspective, the custodial officers’ use of the inclined restrain and JT’s resistance was an oblique or direct explanation for JT’s demise” and “authorized penalties that stem from the Lawyer Normal’s reinvestigation.”
‘Loss of life on Digital Monitored House Launch’
Per the California Penal Code Part 919(b), the Grand Jury has the authorization to “inquire into the situation and administration of the general public prisons inside the county.” In consequence, the 2022-2023 Grand Jury investigated the demise of a 40-year-old Santa Barbara man Nathaniel Montross (known as “NM” within the report), who died whereas taking part within the Various Sentencing Bureau Digital Monitored House Launch Program (EM House Launch). Operated by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Workplace, the EM House Launch program is used to scale back jail overcrowding by permitting nonviolent offenders to serve their jail sentences exterior of jail amenities whereas nonetheless in custody and beneath jurisdiction of the Sheriff’s Workplace.
Montross, who, in keeping with the report, had a historical past of incarceration in Santa Barbara County relationship again to 2014, additionally suffered from mental-health struggles, together with substance abuse, all of which was famous in his medical file with the Sheriff’s Workplace. When Montross utilized and was accepted for dwelling launch by custody workers, custody officers weren’t made conscious of his “substantial historical past of psychological well being points,” the report states. The jail’s contracted medical supplier, Wellpath, didn’t share Montross’s medical and mental-health historical past with custody workers, which the Grand Jury discovered is “important to find out inmate housing, programming, and suitability for the EM House Launch Program.” Whereas Montross was launched with a listing of medical suppliers, the Grand Jury said that he was not monitored to see whether or not he contacted any of these suppliers.
In accordance with the report, on September 23, 2021, Montross was discovered at his dwelling useless from a fentanyl overdose, 21 days away from finishing his sentence.
‘Cybersecurity in Faculties: The Want for Central Authority’
The Grand Jury investigated and reviewed the earlier historical past of cybersecurity points and present cybersecurity preventative measures for Santa Barbara County faculty districts and found that extra must be achieved to deal with cybersecurity countywide. In accordance with the Grand Jury’s report, “Santa Barbara County faculty districts are repeatedly focused by cybersecurity threats, inserting college students and lecturers immediately in hurt’s means.”
The 2022-2023 Grand Jury report succeeded the 2021 Grand Jury evaluation titled “Cybersecurity for Particular Districts and County Service Areas in Santa Barbara County,” which centered on the current circumstances and effectiveness of cybersecurity packages in county colleges. The latest report decided that higher practices must be applied in county colleges to fight cyber-attacks. These practices embody instituting multi-factor authentication (MFA) and formal cybersecurity coaching for college students and/or lecturers.
The report concluded that mandating MFA and formal coaching are usually not impractical for implementation by the Santa Barbara County Schooling Workplace (SBCEO). The Grand Jury said such efforts “must be centralized inside the authority of the SBCEO to formalize insurance policies and procedures in a more cost effective method, thereby inserting all County faculty districts on equal footing.”
‘Lack of Transparency within the Water Conservation District’
A proper grievance was filed about governance on the Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District. The Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District operates and maintains the Twitchell Dam and Reservoir positioned in northern Santa Barbara County and a small part in southern San Luis Obispo County. In accordance with the Grand Jury’s report, the water district is taken into account an impartial particular district and is due to this fact ruled by its personal elected board of administrators “that operates independently of a metropolis or county oversight.”
The Grand Jury investigated alleged violations towards the water district, particularly that there’s a lack of robust management, administrators are usually not correctly skilled in open assembly legal guidelines and parliamentary procedures, staffing is insufficient, conflicts of curiosity exist, there may be questionable appropriation of assets at Twitchell Reservoir, and there may be questionable use of district-owned autos and gear.
Whereas the Grand Jury’s inquiry didn’t yield “adequate factual help for the allegations expressed within the grievance relating to California Water Code Violations,” the jury really helpful that the water district “enhance its administration, professionalism, accountability, and transparency.” The assessment discovered the water district’s transparency, or lack thereof, created a vacuum within the movement of communication and data significance to public data.
The jury additionally referred to as for larger monetary due diligence relating to the district’s failure to vet the “monetary capability and capabilities of events of all contracts,” particularly relating to the weak monetary situation of Mitigation Options LLC (which was employed to stabilize the dam and enhance the reservoir’s capability) and its mother or father firm, “penny inventory” Western Sierra Useful resource Company.
‘Grand Jury Response Compliance Report’
Native residents had the chance to carry to the eye of the 2020-2021 Grand Jury particular necessary points they believed impacted the county in a major means. In complete, 10 substantive reviews had been filed by the Grand Jury expressing completely different businesses’ responses protecting a variety of subjects.
The 2020-2021 investigations included distant studying throughout COVID, unfunded accrued pension obligations, overpopulation and inmate deaths in county jails, homelessness in Santa Barbara County, cybersecurity in Particular Districts, the fiscal solvency of pensions within the county, impression of price range cuts on the Lompoc Police Division, governance at Allan Hancock School, idle oil wells off the coasts, and zoning and allowing points within the Metropolis of Santa Barbara.
The 2022-2023 Grand Jury press launch inspired readers fascinated by particular contents to learn the complete reviews on the Grand Jury web site at sbcgj.org.
