Media Coverage

Oakland, CA – On March 16, 2015, Disability Rights California filed a Compliance Complaint with the California Department of Education (CDE) on behalf of ten named students with disabilities and a class of all special education students in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). 

The complaint alleges that OUSD’s policies and practices result in system-wide violations of the rights of children with disabilities under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  The systemic problems identified in the complaint include:

"Disability Rights California (DRC) found evidence that Santa Barbara County Jail practices violate the rights of prisoners with disabilities, according to the agency’s report on the April 2015 inspection of the jail.

The report listed the jail’s main violations as: undue and excessive isolation and solitary confinement, inadequate mental health care, and denial of rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). DRC identified these issues through a monitoring visit and interviews with prisoners and their families and attorneys.

"Last April marked the first time an outside group inspected the County Jail since 2007. The highly anticipated — and largely damning — findings made public this week criticize the amount of time inmates are placed in small, windowless “safety cells,” or “rubber rooms,” as they’re known.

"SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A report has been issued criticizing the Santa Barbara County Jail for its alleged treatment of prisoners with disabilities. The Disability Rights California (DRC) report says prisoners are denied basic mental health care, held in solitary confinement, and housed in conditions that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Sacramento County is isolating too many jail inmates in small cells for prolonged periods of time, sometimes for 24 hours a day, and may be headed for a class-action lawsuit.

That’s the substance and threat of a scathing review, first released in August, by two groups that examined the treatment of inmates at the main jail downtown and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, both of which are operated by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.