Detention facilities pose a unique challenge with respect to public health and sanitary conditions, and as such, are typically inspected by public health officials. Detention facilities can pose a public health risk to individuals held inside, as well as those who work, visit, or live near these sites.
In the past, the majority of private detention facilities in California operated pursuant to joint contracts with counties, but have since shifted to direct contracts with the federal government. Despite this change, according to their federal contracts these private facilities remain subject to California state and local public health oversight.
While public health oversight laws empower inspections of “publicly operated detention facilities and all private work furlough facilities” they do not explicitly cover private detention facilities. [See California Code, Health and Safety Code – HSC § 101045].
Notwithstanding these requirements, advocates have documented a lack of clarity with respect to how these facilities are viewed by public health officials. On Aug. 24 2020, immigrant rights organizations sent a letter to public health officials in Kern County, home to the Mesa Verde Detention Center, seeking information related to COVID-19 testing. In a response, the county’s director of public health services said their department did not have jurisdiction over the center.
In the spring of 2020, when Otay Mesa, operated by the company CoreCivic, was experiencing a massive COVID-19 outbreak, San Diego health officials emailed the detention facility recommending mass testing of staff to help mitigate virus spread, according to a copy of the email exchange. A warden at Otay Mesa responded with: “Doc – Just so we’re clear – at this point we have no intention to mass test our staff,” according to the email. Subsequently one individual died in the facility and more than 300 detainees and staff were infected. This led to several workers quitting and filing suit against the private prison operator.
All public detention facilities have mechanisms to review poor health and safety outcomes. However, oversight of health conditions in private detention facilities is limited. The federal government contracts with the Nakamoto Group Inc. to conduct annual inspections of private civil facilities in California, while the Office of Detention Oversight inspects facilities every 3 years. A recent report by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General stated that Nakamoto’s inspections “do not fully examine actual conditions or identify all compliance deficiencies,” while Office of Detention Oversight inspections are “too infrequent to ensure the facilities implement all corrections.”
Poor health conditions in these facilities have been widely documented, with reports by Disability Rights noting that the Adelanto Detention facility, “… has an inadequate mental health care and medical care system, made worse by the facility’s harsh and counter-therapeutic practices.”
Private detention facilities continue to pose challenges with respect to health, safety and sanitary conditions. Detained individuals in these facilities continue to file numerous grievances in private facilities. These grievances primarily revolve around detainees facing challenges in accessing timely medical attention, enduring prolonged waits for treatment of persistent conditions—stretching to months—and encountering difficulties in obtaining essential medications. One specific detainee recounted losing multiple teeth due to a two-year delay in receiving dental cavity fillings. During inspections, a prison dentist reportedly proposed that detainees could improve their dental hygiene by using strings from their shoes for flossing their teeth.
The goal of SB 1132 is to ensure that county health officials have the ability to enter these facilities when necessary. The bill does not impose an annual inspection requirement to county health officials, but empowers them to ensure that these private facilities adhere to public health orders and guidelines that are necessary to keep our state safe.
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