Supervisors to Dialogue on Grand Jury Report on Mental Health in the Santa Barbara County Jails

Mental-Health Advocates Press Supervisors to Give More Than Flat ‘Agree’ and ‘Disagree’ Responses

Former county district attorney Stan Roden emphasizes that there's far more in the Grand Jury investigations than is in the report, requesting that the supervisors and others meet with mental-health advocates for a full conversation on the Grand Jury reports. | Credit: Courtesy

Five deaths in the Santa Barbara County Jail are five too many, mental-health advocates asserted, prompting a series of Grand Jury reports earlier this year to illuminate the provision of medical care in the jail. But as juror Stan Roden described to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, what the reports can reveal is only the tip of an iceberg. “There’s no other way to summarize what’s under the ocean, all the other information we collected,” Roden said.

Roden, who was elected district attorney for Santa Barbara County from 1975 to 1982, said that they’d interviewed more than 60 people during their investigations. But the real stories of what happened in the jail were stripped down to broad statements in the reports, summaries of what the grand jury had learned.

Gail Osherenko asked how a Sheriff-Coroner can investigate deaths in jails over which the Sheriff has responsibility. | Credit: Courtesy

“JT, the subject of the first report,” Roden said, “was arrested for domestic violence. He’s cuffed and mentions a wrist injury six months before, so he’s taken to the hospital, where he threatens to commit suicide and beats his head against a wall…. What happened the rest of the night, his intake, the walk down the hall, the safety cell he’s put in … we lose the essence of how additional training could have made a difference there.”

Retired attorney Gail Osherenko spoke for the League of Women Voters and Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice, questioning how the sheriff, in charge of the jail and the coroner’s bureau, could act as coroner in this instance. “As a lawyer, this offends me and all my training in what is ethical. To have a Sheriff-Coroner make a decision on a cause of death when any of the people working under him might be involved, and they were involved — if they don’t get 40 hours of crisis intervention training, we don’t have a prayer of not having any more deaths in the jail.”

The crisis intervention training she referenced is one of the recommendations made in the Grand Jury report, and one of the many that the county answered with: “This recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted.”

The full answers, none of which the county could make in the responses, were made during the hearing by Tanja Heitman, assistant county executive officer and the former chief probation officer. She first explained that the county’s responses to a Grand Jury report were very limited — they can agree, disagree, or give an explanation.

Supervisor Laura Capps wanted clarity on why the county’s responses to the Grand Jury reports could not be more up to date. | Credit: Courtesy

“I can confidently say that the county is aligned with the Grand Jury,” Heitman said, “and that we wholeheartedly agree with the need to improve mental-health care in the jail.”

Between the time of the Grand Jury investigations and the reports, the jail’s health contractor (Wellpath) and the county had made improvements to reduce the number of mental-health individuals in the jail, speed evaluations, increase time out of cells, and other changes. Importantly, County Counsel affirmed that health information — including mental-health information — could be shared with custody deputies by the medical provider.

“This is a monumental shift, and the first time we’ve been able to share mental-health data,” Heitman said. “A dialogue is going on in monthly meetings between Behavioral Wellness and Wellpath. It’s time-consuming, but we’re breaking down silos and communications barriers that have existed for many years.”

Among the breakthroughs is the addition to the jail of the mobile crisis unit at Behavioral Wellness, a suggestion by BeWell Director Toni Navarro during one of the silo-breaking meetings. “She said, ‘Let’s place crisis-trained people in the jail, rather than 250 yards away at BeWell,’” said Supervisor Laura Capps. “Brilliant!”

Sheriff Bill Brown states deaths are inevitable in institutions like a jail, but agrees to meet and discuss health care changes at the jail. | Credit: Courtesy

Sheriff Bill Brown emphasized the staffing and resource difficulties he and Wellpath shared. But he said he was not opposed to “a group of people looking at things related to medical care in the jail, as long as it’s advisory to me as sheriff. I think that’s reasonable. It’s certainly something we can talk about.”

Before the supervisors signed off on the responses, the advocates asked for a larger meeting to exchange ideas for improvements to the jail’s health care, which got a nod from the sheriff. That suggestion passed 3-2, with the supervisors expressing a preference that the conversation take place before Wellpath’s contract is up for renewal at the end of March 2024.