A 31-year-old Eureka woman died in custody at the Humboldt County jail Monday night after she was found not breathing in her cell during a security check. Erica Ekker was housed alone in the maximum security female unit when she was discovered, according to a press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff”s Office. Medical staff performed […]
Humboldt County Jail
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County Nabs $20 Million for New Transitional Jail Facility
Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey announced yesterday that the state has approved a $20 million funding request to build a multi-use addition onto the county jail that officials hope will revolutionize offender rehabilitation locally. The funding will be matched with $1.5 million from the county to build a three-story structure on the gravel lot adjacent […]
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UPDATE: New National Report on Suicide Rates in Jails
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released a report on mortality in jails and state prisons. Its findings offer some perspective on the recent spike in suicide attempts at the Humboldt County jail, which saw 12 attempts in the last year, three times the amount of the previous two years.The statistics in the report do […]
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UPDATE: Borges Attorneys Respond to DA’s Statement on Jail Death
Update: The attorneys representing Daren Borges’ mother responded to District Attorney Maggie Fleming’s press release from last week: Attorneys representing the mother of Daren Borges, retired Humboldt State University professor Stephany Borges, have issued a statement in response to the announcement by Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming that her office does not intend to […]
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DA Probing Borges Death
The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office has initiated a review of the June 13, 2014 in-custody death of Daren Borges, who died hours after being booked into the county jail by Eureka police officers. Borges’ sister, Stephany Borges, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit last week, alleging officers acted negligently in booking him into jail […]
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Supes to Discuss Jail Release Policy
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will look over this year’s grand jury recommendations tomorrow, including the report that called for the end of Humboldt County Jail’s late night release policy. Sheriff Mike Downey said in August that the jail would not comply with the report, and would continue to release people between 10 p.m. […]
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No More Late Night Jail Releases, Says Grand Jury
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 […]
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Unsealed
Two young people gunned down in the middle of the night at a house party in Arcata. A beloved priest tortured and bludgeoned to death in his Eureka rectory. Two men killed execution-style in a home in a nice, quiet neighborhood of Eureka. Each of these crimes stilled the local community, capturing waves of media […]
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Free to Go
If you’re let out of jail in the middle of the night 50 miles from home, who do you call? For some, it’s Hoopa resident Brad Marshall’s elderly mom. That’s something Marshall would like to see change. Before a crowd of 100 people last week, he asked the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office to reassess its […]
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Sheriff, Eureka Chief to Talk Late-Night Jail Release Policy
The county’s top law enforcement officers and church leaders will meet Wednesday, Feb. 26 to discuss the Humboldt County jail’s policy of releasing inmates late at night, when few services are available to them. The jail’s policy came into question after the high-profile killing of Father Eric Freed and was addressed in the Journal’s cover […]