Disability Rights California investigates conditions in jails, juvenile facilities, immigration detention centers and other facilities that detain people. We started this project in 2015 because we have significant concerns about how people with disabilities are treated behind bars and out of the public's view. For example, people with mental health conditions often end up in solitary confinement for long periods, causing enormous harm to their mental and physical well-being.

We recently completed an investigation of the San Diego County Jails. We found that since 2010 more than 30 people have died by suicide while held in these jail facilities. This far outpaces the number of suicides in similarly sized county jail systems in the state. The findings are contained in a DRC report released in April 2018, “Suicides in San Diego County Jail: A System Failing People with Mental Illness.” The report follows a three-year in-depth investigation. DRC Litigation Counsel Aaron Fischer explains. 

The investigation identified a number of critical concerns outlined in the report, including:

• The county’s mental health care system has failed, contributing to the dangerous, costly and counter-productive over-incarceration of people with mental illness in its jails.
• There are significant deficiencies in the jails’ treatment of people with mental health needs. The jail system has long faced inadequate mental health staffing and widespread us harsh solitary confinement. These problems subject people with mental health needs to grave risk of harm.

In addition to our work in San Diego, we have investigated conditions in other county jails across the state. We have issued public reports on our findings, advocated for systemic improvements, and in some cases, gone to court to fight for the rights of prisoners with disabilities.

Visit our Adult and Juvenile Detention Facilities page to read the various reports.
Watch DRC Attorney Rebecca Cervenak's interview on 10News.