Grand Jury: Major Health and Safety Violations at Santa Rita Jail Require 'Urgent Attention'

Serious safety violations, inadequate medical services and poor sanitation are among a host of critical issues plaguing Santa Rita Jail, Alameda County's notorious lockup.

That's according to a civil grand jury investigation of the long-troubled Dublin-based jail, the county's main adult detention facility. The report, released Tuesday, details a litany of major problems at the jail that have resulted in unsafe conditions for its detainees and staff, and spurred a “multiple-year pattern of lawsuits concerning conditions.”

“The concerns identified in this report represent material health, safety, and financial risks and as such warrant urgent attention,” the 35-page report states.

In 2021 alone, it notes, there were seven in-custody deaths at the jail along with an "unprecedented" spike in COVID-19 cases, with some 20% of detainees testing positive at the peak of the January surge.

“When a detainee enters custody at Santa Rita, Alameda County assumes responsibility for that detainee’s health and well-being,” the report asserts. “That responsibility is a legal duty and persists regardless of the emotional or mental state of the detainee, the offense with which they are charged, budget pressures within the county, or even the presence of a global pandemic.”

Among its wide-ranging findings, the report calls attention to inadequate access to outdoor spaces and describes a confusing and ineffective process for detainees to report grievances. It also underscores, in graphic terms, the jail's excessively dirty cells — especially those used for temporary occupancy.

“The presence of feces smeared on walls and foul odors in several cells described as being available for immediate occupancy suggests to the Grand Jury a systemic issue with the quality of cleaning and sanitation of temporary occupancy cells,” the report describes.

The investigation additionally identifies lackluster security procedures at the facility that often fail to block visitors and employees from smuggling in contraband, especially drugs — an issue its staff views “as perhaps the most serious and persistent challenge faced by the jail.”

The grand jurors reported that during their 13 inspection visits, they were asked for credentials only once and were never made to go through a metal detector or undergo a bag search.

Accounts of such lax oversight track with the jail's recent history of overdose deaths and smuggling scandals. In July 2020, an Alameda County Sheriff's technician was charged with 10 felonies for allegedly smuggling methamphetamine and a cellphone to an inmate awaiting trial for murder. The following month, a female detainee died from an overdose of fentanyl that had been smuggled in from an outside dealer.

Around the same time, the jail's medical director was fired for writing fake prescriptions to obtain opioid pain medications.

Operated by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, Santa Rita Jail is among the largest detention facilities in the country. As of February 2022, the 33-year-old facility held roughly 2,260 male and female detainees — about 65% of its total capacity. Nearly two-thirds of its population have not been convicted of crimes, and are awaiting adjudication.

The grand jury, whose investigation included extensive interviews and reviews of thousands of pages of records, makes nearly 30 recommendations for improving conditions at the facility. Among them: regular safety inspections, tighter security at entry points, an updated and more responsive grievance process for detainees, increased access to outdoor areas and stricter enforcement of COVID-19 safety protocols.

The sheriff's office, which has 90 days to respond to the report, declined this week to comment on the findings, saying it was still reviewing them.

“While some of the information related to the Santa Rita Jail has been public for some time, we will obviously need time to review the comments in their entirety before an informed statement can be made,” Tya M. Modeste, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said in an email.