San Benito County Jail

Recommendations 5

• R1

  Page 78
  F1, Employ a full-time, dedicated maintenance person for both preventative maintenance and routine repairs. The employee has his main office at jail and work on other outside Public Works jobs, if needed; not the other way around as is now. Note: If governing bodies plan to address this recommendation with a statement that simply refers to "lack of funds", SBCGJ also recommends this be accompanied by a cost/risk/benefit analysis using hours CO spend on repairs versus other duties; associated risk with CO's taken off the floor to do maintenance and the safety risk of skipping repairs; cost of major repairs due to lack of preventative maintenance; and a list of critical equipment's most recent preventive maintenance and calibrations.
• R2

  Page 78
  F2, F5, Provide the jail with needed resources and staff. The BOS should not become complacent and assert because the jail staff runs the jail well doesn't mean they don't need the additional assets that they continue to request. They make it work because it is a matter of life or death. Not providing the jail with assets penalizes staff for a job well done and keeps the jail running at high stress levels. Staffing is needed specifically during daytime court transports and in the evening for the additional duties specific during the night hours (i.e. when no nurse, medical, or behavior health personnel is on site). Additional staffing should also be regularly provided for planned events when it is known there is a large influx of people into the community, such as the bike rally weekend. Required duties performed per shift clearly indicate the ratio of staff to inmates is at unsafe levels during influx times.
• R3

  Page 78
  F3, Provide the jail staff with needed training. Provide training in extraction and restraint for hostile inmates, specifically in regard to utilizing the safety restraint chair. Having no policy or training on a safety chair used for violent inmates has already led to staff injury. Use of the Restraint Chair is necessary and therefore appropriate training is required.
• R4

  Page 79
  F4, Collaboration is vital to determine a workable system for WIC 5150 inmate evaluation and treatment. An agreement needs to be reached between the County Jail and Behavioral Health that is acceptable to both parties in regard to call out procedures; to evaluate suicidal inmates in a more timely manner so that correctional staff is not used for prolonged monitoring of a suicidal inmate or inmates needing other special psychiatric care.
• R5

  Page 79
  F6, It is time for SBC governing agencies to analyze carefully the potential high costs of the poor quality of food given to people in lock-up. The pervasiveness of food quality complaints by inmates in the SBC Jail is a call for stepped up external oversight. Not simply relying on reports generated by the contractor, the BOS should conduct an in depth management analysis of taxpayers' money spent for inmates in a service contract. This evaluation should review OSHA guidelines for quality assurance; proper food handling; food safety; and that FDA guidelines for nutrition are being provided to inmates. The BOS is strongly encouraged to opt for inspection from an outside nonprofit organization, such as the American Correctional Association.