Attorneys Spar In Class Action Lawsuit On San Diego County Jail Conditions

SAN DIEGO, CA — Attorneys on both sides of a federal class action lawsuit that aims to induce sweeping reforms at San Diego County jails -- which have long faced scrutiny over a high rate of incarcerated deaths -- made arguments Thursday before a federal judge regarding what evidence might be admitted at the upcoming trial.

The lawsuit seeks to correct alleged failures in the county jail system's policies and procedures, which attorneys representing a class encompassing all county inmates say is deficient and has led directly to numerous deaths.

Plaintiffs' attorneys are seeking to have some of San Diego County's expert witnesses' disqualified from testifying in the trial, which is anticipated to last anywhere from two to three months.

Meanwhile, county lawyers are seeking to have the majority of the plaintiffs' claims dismissed from the case as they've argued sufficient improvements have been put in place the address the plaintiffs' concerns.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia took the matter under submission at the conclusion of Thursday's hearing, meaning he did not make a ruling immediately. Battaglia said he would issue a written ruling "as soon as possible."

Van Swearingen, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said that among the alleged inadequacies in the jail system are low staffing levels leading directly to poor medical care for the incarcerated, inoperable monitoring equipment that he said led to late responses to ultimately fatal emergencies and a substandard system for classifying inmates, causing violent and nonviolent offenders to sometimes be placed together or other inmates placed in solitary confinement without justification.

Regarding staffing levels, Swearingen spoke of two inmate deaths, in which the decedents "effectively starved to death," allegedly because there wasn't sufficient enough jail staff to attend to them.

Elizabeth Pappy, one of the attorneys representing the county, argued the plaintiffs hadn't shown a direct, evidence-based connection between specific fatal incidents in the jails and a widespread, systemic issue that would require a major overhaul of the jail system.

Swearingen disagreed, saying the county jail deaths referenced in their papers "aren't idiosyncratic anecdotes. They are evident of a systematic problem in the jail."

While the plaintiffs allege the county's witnesses -- who wrote declarations attesting to apparent improvements in the jails -- performed inadequate or flawed reviews of the county's lockups, Pappy argued that the credibility of those witnesses can be examined through their testimony, rather than excluded outright from the trial.

A California State Auditor's report issued in 2022 concluded there were "deficiencies with how the sheriff's department provides care for and protects incarcerated individuals (that) likely contributed to in-custody deaths."

That audit examined 185 deaths within the San Diego County jail system from 2006 through 2020, a rate that was among the highest in the state during that time period.

— City News Service