Deaths in Our County Jails Reveal Serious Failures & Incompetence

This summer, the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury investigating four deaths in our jails concluded that the death of JT was not “accidental” as determined by the sheriff-coroner, but needed to be investigated by the California Attorney General as a homicide.

The jury concluded: “JT died in a jail cell while suffering from a mental health crisis. The criminal justice and health care systems offered numerous opportunities to provide JT with effective mental health crisis intervention.” Each of those opportunities was missed for preventable reasons, including lack of awareness, miscommunication, inadequate training, and lack of mental health professions on duty 24/7 at the Jail,” i.e., lack of basic competence.

Back in January 2022, The League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara together with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice(CLUE) had organized a vigil to shine a light on the death of John Paul Thomas (labeled JT in the civil Grand Jury report). At the time, we knew that a man died face-down and naked in a “safety cell” only 20 minutes after he was booked into the south county jail on January 12, 2022.

We learned that JT had mental health issues and had told officers that he wanted to commit suicide. We knew he had been evaluated at a local hospital emergency room after being apprehended, and that he wasn’t admitted to the hospital but instead was booked into the jail. Months later, the sheriff-coroner deemed the death “accidental.”

On June 23, 2023, the jury reported, “within reasonable medical certainty, the custody staff applied on-stomach-prone restraint and JT’s vigorous resistance to it was the direct cause of JT’s cardiac arrest.”

Our joint LWV/CLUE Criminal Justice Reform group has been alerting the Board of Supervisors and the sheriff to the need for increased training for law enforcement officers and custody deputies as well as for more mental health treatment in our community as well as in our jails.

The Grand Jury, in its findings and recommendations, provided the County with a roadmap that calls for on-site mental health services in both jails from 11 pm to 7 am (not just the current daytime services) and for all medical staff contracted to work in the jails to have had 40 hours of advanced mental health crisis response training. Additionally, they recommended that the County Sheriff’s Office and all city police departments should provide the 40-hour mental health crisis response training to all patrol co-response teams and custody staff (this is normally provided in law enforcement academies, but many deputies hired before 2023 have not had the training). 

The report called for all cities in the County to provide funding for advanced mental health crisis response training for patrol officers and supervisory personnel (at least 40 hours instruction and eight hours of annual refresher training). Remember, these are recommendations, so it remains to be seen whether they will be implemented.

The jury’s final recommendation calls on the County and the Sheriff-Coroner’s Office to request an independent review of JT’s death from the California Attorney General. Each of the deaths in the jails were investigated by the sheriff-coroner rather than calling in an outside/independent coroner. Some counties have a coroner’s office that is not under the sheriff. We should, but do not, so there is inherent bias and a conflict of interest. 

We will be watching for required responses to the jury’s reports by the sheriff and the District Attorney (in August) and by the Board of Supervisors (in September).

Final reports of the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury are available at: www.sbcgj.org

Lost Opportunity: