A federal lawsuit filed this week excoriates Alameda County, the health care company Wellpath LLC and more than two dozen individuals involved with Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
DUBLIN – A federal lawsuit filed this week excoriates Alameda County, the health care company Wellpath LLC and more than two dozen individuals involved with Santa Rita Jail in Dublin for failing to prevent the suicide of a pre-trial detainee with substance abuse and mental health issues.
By Feb. 7, “Park was exhibiting symptoms of opiate withdrawal, and required immediate medical care,” but allegedly all he received was Gatorade. The complaint alleges that on Feb. 9, multiple prison personnel observed that Park was suffering from withdrawal. At 2:20 p.m., one of them saw him in his cell kneeling on the lower bunk facing away from the door but did not investigate even though at that moment, he “was in the act of attempting suicide by means of placing his weight on a ligature tied to the top bunk.”
To support its claims, the plaintiffs reference a federal investigation of the conditions at the jail. The department said, “as acknowledged by Jail staff, at least 20-25% of prisoners in the Jail have serious mental illness,” and concluded that, “by not adequately addressing these prisoners’ mental health needs, the Jail places them at significant risk of harm.”
The parties to the class action spent more than a year negotiating a consent decree that requires substantial changes in the way the jail is run. Some of the changes are specifically designed to decrease the use of restrictive housing and to allow detainees far more out-of-cell time than had been made available in the past.
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