JAIL INSPECTIONS PRIMER
(originally submitted by a former Butte County Juror with experience in corrections facilities)
When a new Grand Jury first begins to look at local governments, it is faced with the probability
that the average grand juror has had limited experience with many facets of local government
responsibilities and operations. Most grand jurors, though, have had a number of interactions
with some of the departments or functions of a city or county, such as Animal Control or the,
Assessor, or when applying for building permits, etc. If the jury has no current or retired
government employees or members with relevant business experience on the panel, even this
limited exposure gives them at least a starting point from which to go forward.
However, one area of government that most grand jurors frequently lack experience with is the
operations of local detention facilities. The average grand juror usually has had little interaction
with either his or her county jail or local city jail. It’s not unusual for even retired law
enforcement officers to be less familiar with jail operations than they are with patrol or the street
duties of peace officers. Lacking a “luck of the draw” member with custody experience, this
document should provide some kind of a road map by which a Grand Jury can begin to look into
areas of the operations of local detention facilities, especially if there are no overriding local
issues to be focused on.
Grand Juries are mandated to “inquire into the condition and management of the public prisons
within the county” on an annual basis; many juries interpret “prisons” to include not just staterun adult facilities, but also local jails. The issuance of a report on that investigation is not
mandated, but most Grand Juries will report on the results of their investigation, even if the
facility’s report is relatively benign. We are lucky in this respect as jails and other detention
facilities, such as juvenile halls, are among the most regulated aspects of local government.
Much of what a jail does is subject to state regulation, with very specific standards and
requirements for documentation and at minimum biennial state inspections. Access to all these
regulations, standards, jail documentation, and results of state inspections can be helpful to
Grand Juries. However, there are some aspects of the operation of a jail that are not subject to
regulations, but deserve the attention of the Grand Jury. This is what is referred to as the
"community standard."
A good place to begin for a Grand Jury would be to look at the operations of the main jail facility
in the county. In California, jails are ordinarily operated by the elected Sheriff. Most jail
operations have similarities, based upon the fact they are all tasked with the same responsibility.
However, local governments can vary in their operations, so real differences may exist even
between jails located in adjoining counties.
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Commonly, jail operations in California formerly used either deputy sheriffs or corrections
officers to staff the jail under the supervision of a captain or other deputy of the Sheriff. These
“corrections officers” are not full time peace officers, like fully trained deputy sheriffs are. These
custody staff are in the category of “public officers” and are limited in the actions they can take
inside a jail dealing with inmates. In some smaller counties in California the elected Sheriff can
specifically designate the custody staff as “part time peace officers.” That means they can
perform peace officer level duties within the jail and armed transport outside the jail, under the
supervision of a Peace Officer, directly related to their custodial duties. They can only exercise
this power when on duty, uniformed, and performing their job. But the Sheriff loses this option
once the county’s population reaches a certain level. Penal Code §830.1(c), added within the last
few years, created a part time peace officer position, frequently called either a custody deputy or
a corrections deputy, in 32 specified counties. The powers of this position are the same as those
in smaller counties designated by a Sheriff, and are used by the 32 counties to operate their jail
with custody staff.
The Grand Jury should look at Title 15 the State of California regulations, titled “Minimum
Standards for Local Detention Facilities.” If you’re looking into a jail’s operations, at least a
brief familiarity with these regulations is vital. Just by reading the chapter headings, you will
immediately become aware that any questions you have regarding a jail’s operation are probably
addressed here. For example: §1029 -Policy & Procedures Manual (must be reviewed and
updated every 2 years), §1025 Continuing Professional Training, §1032 Fire Suppression
Preplanning (contingency plan, may be part of the Policy & Procedure Manual); §1050
Classification Plan (must have a written classification plan, which must be objective). These are
state mandated standards, which the jail must meet. Compliance with these standards is reviewed
by California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) employees on a biennial basis
for every jail in California. These standards and other state regulations referenced here are
available on line at www.bscc.ca.gov/regulations/regulations.htm.
When reviewing a jail, one of the first things you should do is review a copy of the most recent
inspection report. If the report is not available in your grand jury library, contact the BSCC, find
out the staff member assigned to report on “your” county’s jail, and request it. The inspectors
working for the state are professional, and though extremely overworked lately, do detailed
investigations and excellent work. But because of their workload, it may take them some time to
get you a copy of the report, which is why you should do that early in the investigation. Also,
request from them not only their “summary” report but also the detailed checklist they work
from. This will give you a good overview of all areas of the jail, and how the inspector viewed
those sections.
The chapter headings in Title 15 should give a Grand Jury a starting point to review whatever
areas of a jail operation interests them or that they suspect may be lacking. Note that almost all
actions taken inside jails are documented somewhere. Whether it is just routine (and mandated)
security checks on inmate housing units or mandated “yard” time, visiting, or significant
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incidents involving physical restraint of an inmate, violent acts either between inmates or
between staff and inmates, and injuries, whatever the cause. As Title 15 outlines how inmate
discipline is handled, the jail must document its policy and procedure for dispensing discipline
and the limits of that discipline. All of this is and should be documented in some manner, and
must be available to the Grand Jury for review. You can’t possibly review everything, but as the
BSCC employees do, you can review a random sample, and then dig deeper if you find
problems.
Inmate diets are regulated by Title 15, and reviewed by the BSCC. As with other aspects of the
jail’s operations, the menu and food preparation for jail inmates are defined and monitored by the
state. Under Article 12, “Food,” are chapter headings that regulate the frequency of serving and
the minimum diet that must be given, as well as regulations referencing menu preparation and a
requirement for a written food service plan. Meals are an important factor in evaluating a custody
facility and cannot be underestimated. Many, if not most jail and prison disturbances can be
traced back to complaints about food. Whether quality or quantity, state standards in this area are
recognized as important and should be evaluated. The detail of these regulations can be
recognized by what subjects they contain. Example: jail food service must conform to the
California Uniform Retail Food Facilities Law. Menus must be prepared one month in advance,
and require a registered dietitian to review those menus at least annually or when changes are
made.
The next area a Grand Jury might look, especially if there are concerns about the facility’s
physical plant, is “Minimum Standards for Local Detention Facilities” (Title 24. As Title 15 is to
operations, Title 24 is to the physical facility itself. And also as in Title 15, a review of the
chapter sections will give you a guideline as to what regulation and standard is contained in that
chapter. For example in §470A.2, Designation for Required Spaces, you find the requirements
for a wide variety of jail spaces such as booking, sobering cells, single and double occupancy
cells, pharmaceutical storage, etc. These regulations even go down to the details of the
furnishings that must be included in these areas. Again as an example, regarding inmate housing
cells, there are descriptors ranging from the provision of mirrors in a cell (§470A.3.9) to what
seating must be provided (§470A.3.10).
Along with the most recent biennial report of the BSCC on the jail you are reviewing, there is
another area where an official review/report may be available to you. This report is under the
authority of the State Fire Marshal. California Health & Safety Code §13143 gives the State Fire
Marshal the responsibility to set standards and regulations for most buildings in the state, but
specifically those buildings being used as a detention facility. Health & Safety Codes §§13109,
13145 and 13246 give the State Fire Marshal the authority to inspect the facility, and allow the
State Fire Marshal to delegate the physical inspection to local (City and County) fire authorities.
These reports are generally done every two years, and should be available either through the
State Fire Marshal’s office or local Cal Fire or County Fire agencies.
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This may seem like a lot of work, becoming familiar with these state regulations and reviewing
local jail documentation. But having such detailed regulations really provides an easy way of
putting up a yardstick against a local detention facility’s operations. And the state reviews and
reports are valuable tools. While the state inspectors can’t and don’t cover all aspects of a jail’s
operation on their biannual visits, they have an understanding of the types of things that can go
awry in a jail, and provide a road map for areas where you don’t need to go. If they have looked
at a policy or procedure in some detail, you probably don’t need to spend a lot of time there.
This allows you to make better use of the limited time a Grand Jury has to look into a highly
regulated and sometimes controversial operation of your local government.
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