As jail populations creep up to pre-coronavirus levels, activists implore DAs, judges for leniency
FILE ART - Santa Rita Jail.
MARTINEZ, Calif. - As some jails around the Bay Area creep back to pre-coronavirus population levels, activists, community members and attorneys are asking district attorneys to stop charging so many crimes and judges to release more people from custody if they don't pose a risk to society by doing so.
In a letter to Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton just before Christmas, a coalition of attorneys and interfaith groups implored her to be more lenient in deciding who to keep behind bars as the coronavirus levels peak nationwide. They referred to her promise in March when she said she would reduce the jail population and create humane conditions for confinement.
"We urge you to significantly reduce the jail population immediately," the group wrote. "Your office’s immediate action is needed – with the most urgent attention – to prevent an even darker winter in our community.
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Specifically, they asked Becton to release anyone who can’t afford cash bail; reduce the jail population to eliminate sharing of cells; and free the elderly, those who have health risks and those who have six months left on their sentences.
Becton did not respond to the group, according to one of its signatories, Ali Saidi, president of the Contra Costa Defender Association.
However, in a statement to KTVU on Wednesday, Becton said her office helped release 50 people last week.
"Overall, we have reacted swiftly to these recent outbreaks," she wrote. "My office is working to ensure that we only request in custody status for those few individuals who present a danger to our community remain in custody."
The Contra Costa County jails had a coronavirus spike last week with more than 50 cases, including two hospitalizations.
As of this week, sheriff spokesman Jimmy Lee said the inmate population at the county's three jails is 685 with a capacity for nearly 1,980. When the pandemic broke out, there were 1,133 people in jail, Lee said.
Even though the population is at nearly half of what it was in March, nearly two dozen inmates and their loved ones have contacted KTVU over the last two weeks, worried about the rising infection rates and alleging that certain protocols are not being followed. Some of their allegations include: being told to use the same rags for days on end, deputies not wearing masks, inmates being doubled up in cells and not being given personal hygiene kits. One mother and her incarcerated son claimed that eight people were housed together in one cell, with people sleeping on mats on the floor.
Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said that the jail works closely with the county's health services, follows state coronavirus protocols and he called these allegations "blatantly false." In terms of putting eight people in one cell, Lee said that would be "almost physically impossible to do that."
There are similar situations and calls to reduce jail populations elsewhere in the Bay Area.
Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County also had an uptick in coronavirus cases last week with a spike in a particular dorm setting. And the jail population now stands at 2,157, just 400 people less than when the pandemic began in March.
"What I want them to do was what they did at the beginning of the pandemic," said Kara Janssen, a civil rights attorney who has sued the Alameda County Sheriff's Office over the mental health conditions at the jail. "The courts and DA appeared to be taking the issue seriously. They worked with the public defender to get people out of jail. It just seems like they have forgotten about it."
Janssen said as the jail population continues to climb, the district attorneys and the judges need to comb through cases more carefully and figure out who can be released from custody as they await court hearings. In addition, she said the DAs should be looking at what cases they should actually be charging.
"I'm sure there are offenses that do not need to be taking up the court's space," she said. "On minor charges, people are just sitting there for months and months because the courts aren't operating at their normal levels."
In a statement, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said that her office has reduced the number of charged cases by more than 50% over the last two weeks and about 75% in the last week. But it should be noted, she said, that reviewing cases of those in custody is very time-intensive. Prosecutors in her office have reviewed more than 1,000 cases for potential release when COVID-19 first hit, O'Malley said.
"The challenges we face with efforts to recommend release of individuals are compounded by the fact that it is the last week of December and the courts are closed due to budget cuts," she wrote. "Only a judge has the authority to order release."
However, she said her office has already requested lists from the sheriff’s department of those who are in custody serving a sentence and those who are in custody awaiting trial. And she said that prosecutors will bring individual cases to a judge to recommend the release of those who do not pose a risk of harm to the community or to the victims of their crimes.
O'Malley said that another challenge is that an "overwhelming majority" of the pending cases of those in custody are the most serious and violent crimes. Misdemeanor arrests and low-level felony arrests are generally not brought to jail or are released within hours of arrest.
In San Mateo County, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said his office, as well as the judges, believe the answer is to continue charging crimes, but allow people to be released on their recognizance or on much lower bails as the best way to keep crime in check but also keep jail populations down.
He said prosecutors and courts are also looking for lower sentences in appropriate cases and looking for alternatives to incarceration, such as treatment programs.
He said law enforcement agencies in San Mateo County have joined this effort, by issuing citations to appear in court instead of arresting and jailing people.
"The impact of this approach has been significant," Wagstaffe said.
Before the pandemic, he said the county's two jail facilities had about 1,000 inmates, and after these approaches were implemented, the population was reduced by half, to about 500.
As the months have worn on, the population is now at 700.
Wagstaffe said that's mostly because the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and state hospitals have stopped accepting inmates due to the serious COVID outbreaks in those facilities and they are in a holding pattern in county jails.
Lisa Fernandez is a reporter for KTVU. Email Lisa at lisa.fernandez@foxtv.com or call her at 510-874-0139. Or follow her on Twitter @ljfernandez.