PROBABLE NEW MANAGEMENT FOR LA JAILS’ MEDICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH CARE
Los Angeles County is the only county in the state of California that lets its sheriff’s department run the health care system for its county jails.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting, all that may change.
Tuesday is the day when the board will entertain a motion—proposed by supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Mike Antonovich—to take away responsibility for inmate medical care from the sheriff’s department, and to also to snatch the oversight of inmate mental health care from the Department of Mental Health. The two functions are then to be consolidated under the Department of Health Services (DHS), and overseen by the newly created position of “Correctional Health Director” within the DHS.
This new configuration for how LA County looks after the medical and mental health needs of its jail inmates is part of a larger plan that will be officially presented by Interim CEO Sachi Hamai. The plan was created in response to a request from the board back in early March, which asked the CEO and representatives of other county officials to take a look at “the status of jail health services in Los Angeles County,” and to make recommendations about how “the overall quality and delivery of the care provided in the County jails..” could be improved.
In other words, the supes had been aware for a while that the medical and mental health care in the jails sucked, but they wanted to know how much it sucked, and what to do about getting it not to suck.
The conclusion reached by the CEO and her fellow evaluators (which included representatives from the LASD) was that both functions needed to be removed post haste from those who’d been running them in the past. (Although the report said this far more politely.)
We have known for some time that the LA County Department of Mental Health (DMH), along with the sheriff’s department, has been doing a frighteningly lousy job of running the mental health part of the medical system inside our county lock-ups.
(For an idea of how lousy, see the federal investigation that resulted in scathing reports and a still looming federal consent decree.)
But while the mental health situation inside the jails—and the need for mental health diversion—has received a lot of public attention, plain old medical services have not.
And, yet, anecdotal information strongly indicates that matters are not healthy on the medical care side of things either.
For instance, a pattern of problems has shown up in the complaints filed with the ACLU, and in accounts by sources who work inside the jail system and who are troubled by what they see. At WLA we’ve also been getting harrowing calls from inmates inside the jail who describe fairly convincingly how they cannot get basic care and/or medication for very real and often serious medical conditions. So they call us in the hope that somehow we can help them get their needs met.
As legal director of the Southern California ACLU, Peter Eliasberg, put it, “We have every reason to believe that the quality of medical care in the jails is abysmal.”
Yet, it turns out that what reportedly amounts to inadequate medical care (or worse) does not come cheap: A budget of $238 million and over 1,700 budgeted personnel are allocated yearly to the Sheriff’s Medical Services Bureau (MSB).
“There are numerous reasons why these changes make sense including a) the obvious unsuitability of a law enforcement agency for the provision of medical care, b) the well-documented and long-standing failures of DMH to provide appropriate care to inmates with mental illness…” Eliasberg wrote on Monday in a letter to the board.
Time for a change. Good for the supes for calling for it. Lets hope they and the DHS and the LASD follow through and insist on—as they say in the movie script business— a Page 1 rewrite.
More on the jail medical care issue as it unfolds.
UPDATE: After lots of commentary from the audience, including people who won Tuesday the motion passed unanimously.
AND WHILE THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT JAILS, HOW MUCH WILL THE LA COUNTY SUPES CONSIDER SCALING DOWN THE MEGA BUCKS JAIL BUILDING PLAN ON TUESDAY?
Likely the presentation that will make the biggest splash at Tuesday’s LA County Board of Supes meeting will be the powerpoint of the retooled jail building proposal that scales down the nearly $2 billion plus Vanir building plan that was approved in May of 2014, before we had a new sheriff.
Among those presenting the plan will be Sheriff Jim McDonnell, Assistant Sheriff Terri McDonald, Dr. Marvin Southard, of the (possibly soon to be ousted from the jails) Dept. of Mental Health and more.
The group has done some admirable scaling back and rethinking of the number of new beds, (See P. 19 of the report) but will the changes be enough?
Since both Supervisors Hilda Solis and Sheila Kuehl talked about their opposition to the existing plan in their campaigns for office, and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas abstained during the Vanir vote, one presumes there will be some hard and lively questions asked.
UPDATE: Rather than accept the new plan put forth by the Sheriff, et al, a three member majority of the board decided to delay the go-ahead on the revised building plan in order to take a long hard look at how large the new jail really needs to be.
Stay tuned.
It made about as much sense to have a sworn unit commander overseeing Medical Services Bureau as it made to have a senior cook overseeing Homicide Bureau. Update your resume, Kuykendall!
Really?….A new jail proposal and plans. At the lack of deputies and pennies on the dollar for a raise…….Who will staff it? Civilians or automation. Interesting.
The sheriff’s department has proven that it can not manage medical/mental health services for inmates. They can’t even manage their own, let alone an independent agent (i.e. Doctor, Nurse, DMH. etc).
How many mental health inmates have been “stabilized” according to the jail standard, within 90 days, then moved to General Population? How many have been housed in Twin Towers, for mental health reasons, for years?
Answer that one 8th Floor…why do you keep covering up these statistics?
What are the board of supervisors and ACLU basing there standards off of? When I worked custody, the inmates had better health care than I did and I PAY for my insurance. When I want to see a doctor, I have to make an appointment and wait 2 weeks. When I have an emergency, I have to go to the ER and wait hours on end. The inmates I’ve seen (in my 6 years working custody), see a doctor almost immediately during an emergency. They see a doctor a lot sooner than two weeks in a non emergency.. If it’s something serious, they get referred to general hospital. They get name brand medications (no generics) at no cost.
These inmates have better health benefits than 80% of LA county. They receive better service than 98% of the county.
Charges filed against Brian Moriguchi and PPOA!
Below are the charges filed with ERCOM earlier today against Brian Moriguchi and PPOA:
AFSCME District Council 36 v. PPOA
I. Charge Against
Name: Lt. Brian Moriguchi and Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association
Address: 188 E. Arrow Highway, San Dimas, CA 91773
II. Summary of Allegations:
Lt. Brian Moriguchi and Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association (“PPOA”) have directed certain supervisory members of PPOA, specifically, lieutenants and sergeants within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (“Sheriff’s Department”) (1) to prohibit Sheriff’s Department employees from soliciting support for charging party American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (“AFSCME”) District Council 36 among Department employees anywhere and at any time on County property; and (2) to discourage employees from supporting AFSCME District Council 36. Additionally, PPOA president Lt. Brian Moriguchi published an open letter that impliedly threatened reprisal against a Sheriff’s Department employee for her support for the decertification efforts of her fellow employees. Such conduct interferes with, restrains and coerces employees in the exercise of their rights under the County Employee Relations Ordinance (“ERO”), in violation of ERO §§ 5.04.240(B)(1).
III. Specific Allegations
1.1. In a letter dated April 8, 2015, AFSCME District Council 36 notified the Sheriff’s Department that, at the request of numerous employees, it was embarking on an organizing campaign to decertify PPOA, the incumbent union representing employees in Bargaining Unit 621. Bargaining Unit 621 includes various classifications of non-sworn employees in the Sheriff’s Department.
1.2. PPOA, the incumbent union, is the exclusive bargaining representative of several bargaining units within the Sheriff’s Department, and includes within its membership both supervisory and non-supervisory personnel. Such supervisory personnel, including lieutenants and sergeants within the Sheriff’s Department, have significant control over the terms and conditions of employment for employees in Bargaining Unit 621.
1.3. AFSCME District Council 36’s April 8, 2015 letter notified the Sheriff’s Department that PPOA, by and through its supervisory members within the Sheriff’s Department, had unlawfully threatened employees in Bargaining Unit 621 about their support for District Council 36. For example, PPOA informed employees that failure to support PPOA could result in an involuntary transfer. PPOA further warned employees that if it was decertified as the representative of Bargaining Unit 621, employees would suffer a decrease in benefits.
1.4. PPOA has continued to engage in activities designed to interfere with, restrain and coerce employees in the exercise of their rights under the County Employee Relations Ordinance. Specifically, on or about May 22, 2015, PPOA president Lt. Brian Moriguchi issued a written directive to supervisors, including lieutenants and sergeants with supervisory authority over employees in Bargaining Unit 621, instructing them to prohibit employees from soliciting support for AFSCME District Council 36 anywhere on County property. Because employees have a right to form and join employee organizations of their own choosing and to solicit support for such efforts on County property during their non-working time, PPOA’s directive, carried out through supervisors who have significant control over the working conditions of employees in Bargaining Unit 621, is designed to, and will, interfere with, restrain and coerce employees in the exercise of their rights under the County Employee Relations Ordinance.
1.5. Additionally, in the same written directive to supervisors, including lieutenants and sergeants with supervisory authority over employees in Bargaining Unit 621, PPOA president Lt. Moriguchi instructed supervisors to persuade employees to remain members of PPOA. Because employees have a right to form and join employee organizations of their own choosing, PPOA’s directive, carried out through supervisors who have significant control over the working conditions of employees in Bargaining Unit 621, is designed to, and will, interfere with, restrain and coerce employees in the exercise of their rights under the County Employee Relations Ordinance.
1.6. On or about May 20, 2015, PPOA president Lt. Moriguchi posted an open letter on PPOA’s website singling out Juliet Camacho, an employee in Bargaining Unit 621, for criticism based on her support of the decertification efforts of her fellow employees. The letter implied that Camacho was “inept, incompetent and clueless;” accused her of only caring about certain classifications within the Sheriff’s Department “or possibly only [her]self;” accused her of stating certain “half-truths” and “mislead[ing] [her] coworkers;” and suggested that “if [she] truly ha[d] concerns about inmate contact [in County facilities], the . . . job may not be for [her].” In light of the accusations in the letter and the fact that PPOA president Lt. Moriguchi’s open letter was directed to, among others, supervisors in the Sheriff’s Department, including lieutenants and sergeants with supervisory authority over employees in Bargaining Unit 621, including Camacho, the open letter constitutes an implied threat of reprisal for Camacho’s exercise of her rights under the County Employee Relations Ordinance.
1.7. By the above-described conduct, PPOA has interfered with, restrained and coerced employees in the exercise of their rights under the County Employee Relations Ordinance (“ERO”), in violation of § 5.04.240(B)(1).
The MCJ can has been kicked so far down the road only the pop top is left. LASD has no business, with minor exceptions for serious crime, dealing with bonified dings in need of mental health care. The inmates in Tower One of TTCF are housed in subhuman and despicable conditions. The best thing that could happen to the Sheriff and residents of LA County is for the Feds to come in and take it all away from LASD and the County. All of Custody Division removed and placed under complete control of the Feds. The BOS can’t and won’t make a decision. Empty MCJ and blow it up, done.
@ Red Baron. I understand that many ALADS members want OUT also.
LASPA definitely has more to offer. LASPA does not offer Raging Waters, however, deputies are respected and are not fed Bullsh*! by attorneys or staff.
I understand that LASD has had it’s fair share of bad actors, problems, etc. However, I think we are loosing sight of the fact “Jail” with a capital “J” was never designed, intended to be or ever will be a happy and fun place. The concept of “punishment” and “loss of privileges” as a means of correcting bad behavior seems to have lost it’s meaning. Not so long ago, I can remember when people were arrested, went to jail and served their time, many left saying…..”boy I never want to go back there again”. If we make “jail” a pleasant experience with all the comforts, benifits and daily life activities present in regular society, what is the deterent. Thank you ACLU for fighting the fight against the Law and Order necessary for a civilized society to remain civilized and its citizenary to feel safe. I guess the concept of time outs for adults is cruel and unusual as well. Also, DMH is responsible for it’s own demise. This is a by-product of diagnosing everyone who commits a crime as having a mental illness or disease. I guess you can say they diagnosed themselves right out of business. Karma I guess.
Federal Law says you can not organize during work time, so does Department policy. PPOA leadership reminding members of the law is not a violation.
Ms Camacho publicly complained about PPOA. Morighuchi publicly challenged her allegations. Stating his comments are Implied threats is just AFSCME spin. Go to the 621 Strong website and read the letter.
Accusing every Sgt and Lt of interfering with 621 Members ability to organize is despicable. These are the tactics used by AFSCME when they raid other unions.
Remember a complaint to ERCOM is just that, a complaint. Department members are subject to baseless complaints everyday, including 621 members.
Like most of the complaints filed against other PPOA members, these complaints will be determined to be unfounded. 621 members have to ask themselves, how does AFSCME’s false accusation that Sgts and Lts are interfering with your right to organize further their cause! It does not. It only servers the goals of AFSCME. Divide PPOA, suggest conflict of interests between members, raid the 621 membership, and steal their dues.
Go to the 621 strong website and read the truth for yourself.