The Humboldt County Grand jury is calling for Sheriff Mike Downey to enact changes to the county jail’s release policies, including a recommendation to end late-night and early-morning releases.
“The people of Humboldt County would be better served if Humboldt County Correctional Facility stopped releasing inmates between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.,” reads a report released by the jury today.
The Grand jury also suggest that the county jail may be violating state law by not providing inmates arrested at distant locations a way to get home, and recommend that cash confiscated during bookings be returned upon an inmate’s release.
The practice of releasing people from the jail in the late night and early morning hours came under scrutiny after the killing of Father Eric Freed on Jan. 1, allegedly at the hands of a man who had been arrested in Redway on the afternoon of Dec. 31 and released in downtown Eureka — blocks from where Freed slept — after midnight. The grand jury report cites three deaths that have occurred in the last year “involving early morning releases from the jail.”
Downey, citing constitutional concerns (which he reiterated to the grand jury), explained that the jail holds people arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol until they are determined to be sober and not a danger to themselves or others. If sobriety comes at 3 a.m., that’s when the jail lets them out. The jail also sometimes releases inmates during late-night/early morning hours when they’ve completed a sentence.
In May, following a town hall meeting that was heated at times, the sheriff’s office announced a change in policy: they would offer inmates the option to stay in jail ’til morning, if the inmate requested it. (Three to five inmates per week asked for such a thing, according to a sheriff’s office press release at the time.)
But in its report released today, the grand jury determined that Downey’s constitutional concerns weren’t likely to have actual legal impacts (the Journal noted in the January story “Dead of Night” that at least six other jails around the state hold people until daylight hours, without legal challenge). The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that jails can legally hold people for 48 hours before they must be brought before a judge. Releasing them prior to that period is discretionary, the grand jury determined.
“In a situation where the safety of the community is at issue, the Jury believes that it is extremely unlikely that any court will hold that the Sheriff is violating the law by deciding that the exercise of such discretion should not occur between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. when the exercise of that discretion can put the community at risk,” the report states. “The sheriff should order that no decision as to whether or not ‘no further proceedings are desirable’ will be made between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.”
In addition, the grand jury found that the Humboldt County jail may be violating California law by not providing transport for people arrested in the far reaches of the county.
“California Penal Code Section 686.5 mandates that for an indigent person who is arrested ‘more than 25 airline miles’ from where he or she is released from custody and who will not be charged, ‘the arresting agency shall, at his request, return or provide for return of such person to the place of his arrest.’ Humboldt County Correctional Facility staff told us they do not routinely follow this policy,” the report reads.
The report suggest that the sheriff’s office work with the Humboldt Transit Authority to provide bus tickets for released inmates. “We think that Humboldt Transit Authority would prove amenable to this procedure. Generally speaking the early morning buses are not crowded and making bus tickets available would be virtually cost free as the buses will run in any case.”
If the place of arrest was not accessible by public transit, the report goes on, the jail must make other arrangements.
Finally, the grand jury recommended that inmates be given back any cash that they were booked with upon release. Currently, the jail issues a check for confiscated cash upon release (unless the inmate was booked for a brief intoxication hold) — a practice the grand jury called “problematic.”
Read the full report
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This article appears in Rio Dry.
Should read, “Grand Jury says, ‘F*** The Constitution'”.
A person’s rights, or lack thereof, are now dependent on what time they are picked up?
For example, if law enforcement chooses to arrest someone at night, that person now has fewer rights to be free of imprisonment than someone that law enforcement chooses to arrest 8 hours later–or earlier?
So much for Due Process Of Law. So much for Equal Protection Of The Laws. So much for the Eighth Amendment.
Sheriff Downey has read the US and State Constitutions. The Grand Jury obviously has not, deeming it, in the words of George W. Bush, “Just a GD piece of paper” when it’s inconvenient. The ends do *not* justify the means. At least that’s what this country used to believe.
Hooray! A few extra hours in the can is not a violation of civil rights (They could just as easily decide to hold ALL arrested for arraignment) and the enhancement of safety for the community and for those released is crucial.
I personally know 4 people, 3 women and one man, who, having been arrested on charges like disorderly conduct or public intoxication, were sexually assaulted after being let out of the jail between 2 am and 5 am and I’ve heard countless stories secondhand of people who have been assaulted, robbed or otherwise harmed during those hours when no public transportation is available and 2/3 of the folks out and about are up to no good.
And, because the jail serves such a large area, it is unreasonable to expect someone who is tired, probably still a bit tipsy and an hour or more from home to be able to make safe arrangements at 3am.
I consider this a win.
A slight modification in the unreasonable police state protocol.
After paradoxically being arrested without explanation for a concealed weapon charge when I reported being attacked by a crazy hitchhiker, I was released in Eureka, given a check for my roughly $50 with my wallet and bicycle in McKinleyville at the end of the business day no less. I was pissed off on multiple levels. The charges were eventually dropped when I attempted to have a trial but it was a miserable experience with five days in jail, since it included a weekend. My dismissal took months of hearings, getting up early, stressing when the bus was late worrying if I missed it and then would have a warrant for my arrest.
With this kind of magical treatment it is no surprise when they release somebody mentally imbalanced in the middle of the night , far from home with a “prisoners trust check” that it is a massive disservice to the community resulting in more crime. What a good way to subsidize justification for the police state. Corrections, sure.
And the rest of the Grand Jury’s Final Report?
For example, how this county treats distressed children in a way that manufactures more embittered criminals?
Was this why the county refused to publish this GJ report?
If it were about abandoned dogs or starving horses, instead of suicidal children, it might have made front page news.
The public’s simply going to have to wait for our first school shooting before addressing this county’s unsubstantiated claims that “distressed children are rare occurrences”, that the county “can’t afford the police training, facilities, psychologists, and a non-uniformed Mobile Response Team (two professionals) to be called as a priority for children”, as opposed to repeated police handcuffing and isolation at Sempervirens to get those suicidal children to SHAPE UP OR ELSE!
What a disgrace.