SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — Five people have died in Sacramento County jails since May, and now attorneys in a lawsuit that resulted in federal oversight of those jails are sounding the alarm.
Tonette Washington is the wife of 40-year-old Asaiah Washinton, who died in the Sacramento County Main Jail on July 26. He and his cellmate were found unresponsive. Narcan — the opioid overdose reversal drug — revived his cellmate, but Washington died.
"My husband should be here right now,” Washington said tearfully at a news conference outside the Sacramento County Main Jail earlier this month. “How do you overdose in a Sacramento County jail? Where did it come from?”
She and advocates spoke out after Washington became the fifth inmate in Sacramento County jails to die within three months.
Elwin Tolosa, 45, died May 5; David Barefield, 55, died May 12; Smiley Martin, 29, died June 8; Juan Angel Rodriguez, 41, died June 28 and Asaiah Washington, 40, died July 26.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) oversees the county’s two jails. Sacramento County Adult Correctional Health — separate from SCSO — oversees all medical care within those jails.
Both entities are the subject of two letters shared with ABC10 by attorneys involved in what’s called the Mays Consent Decree, essentially a legally binding performance improvement plan.
Approved by a federal judge in January 2020, the agreement outlines steps the county must take to improve its jails’ mental health and medical care, suicide prevention efforts among inmates and use of solitary confinement, among other issues. The county also agreed reducing the jail population would help achieve compliance.
Four-and-a-half years later, attorneys Patrick Booth and Margot Mendelson with the Prison Law Office and Aaron Fischer with the Law Office of Aaron J. Fischer wrote in a letter this month to Sheriff Jim Cooper, “We are gravely concerned about these (five recent) deaths…Having reviewed the surveillance and body-worn camera footage of several recent deaths, we write to again express our deep concern about the SSO’s failure to respond with humanity and decency to people in need…It is commonplace in the jails for custody staff to ignore people in crisis who press the emergency buttons in their cells begging for help.”
Medical experts in the case wrote in a letter to Sacramento County, “Through review of medical records and video footage, we concluded that some of the recent deaths in the jail may have been preventable.”
The medical experts said the sheriff’s office needs to retrain its patrolling deputies and all other arresting law enforcement agencies within the county “on the criteria for taking patients in need (of) emergency care to the hospital.”
They said SCSO also needs to retrain jail deputies on how to “recognize signs of serious medical and mental health conditions.”
The list is longer for the county’s Adult Correctional Health and includes reviewing and reinforcing all emergency response procedures and revising the intake medical screening process.
They said these are “critical issues that, if not corrected, will likely result in future deaths.” The full list can be found at the end of this story.
Sgt. Amar Gandhi, spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, told ABC10 in a statement, “For the time being, we are still reviewing the letters and specifically how they apply to the Sheriff’s Office and our area(s) of responsibility. While we have found inaccuracies and other points of contention, we will comment further once our full review is complete.”
A spokesperson for Sacramento County Adult Correctional Health, Elizabeth Zelidon, said:
“Sacramento County is aware of the recently released redacted report written by the external subject matter experts as part of the Mays Consent Decree.
“The County has been working to implement a series of Corrective Action Plans, developed as part of the investigations into the recent Jail-related deaths. We are reviewing these plans with subject matter experts to ensure they effectively address the concerns raised and lead to meaningful improvements. Early adoption of parts of the plan has already improved our responses to medical emergencies.
“The mission of Sacramento County's Adult Correctional Health has always been, and will continue to be, to provide comprehensive, effective, and efficient healthcare services to adults in the Sacramento County Jails. We remain focused on improving the health and well-being of every patient by providing quality services through integrated healthcare practices delivered with empathy and concern.
“County will continue to work with urgency to implement these improvements.”
Community advocate Meg White, with J.U.I.C.E Sacramento (Justice Unites Individuals and Communities Everywhere), spoke at the early August news conference with the family of Asaiah Washinton.
"We need independent oversight. We need community resources. This jail is already under federal consent decree for inhumane and unconstitutional practices," White said.
For additional perspective, ABC10 reached out to law enforcement advisor Ed Obayashi, who isn’t connected to this case. He said the Sacramento County isn’t the only county facing issues with health care in jails. A lot of it comes down to money and staffing, he said.
Typically, inmate populations have higher average rates of health care needs as compared to the community, including chronic health conditions, serious mental illness and substance use disorders.
If there are medical staff openings that a county has trouble filling — and Sacramento County has several open positions at the jail — then, Obayashi said, that’s going to have an impact on the quality of care.
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