With indifferent sheriff and board, jail horror stories just keep coming

Last November, after The San Diego Union-Tribune posted yet another appalling story about the wrenching deaths of inmates at county jails run by the Sheriff’s Office, county Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer indicated she had heard and seen enough. The often-outspoken progressive lawmaker said in an interview that preventable jail deaths are “completely unacceptable” and that the county board should make addressing this longstanding problem a priority.

This came after an 18-year stretch in which there was an average of more than one jail death a month. If that mattered little to the callous locals who don’t care what happens to such inmates — even if they are being held for being unable to pay bail for the most minor of alleged offenses — this dimension of the problem should have: Since 2018, the county has paid at least $80 million and counting in settlements and jury awards over jail deaths and injuries.

But as two recent stories show, nothing ever changes. No matter what Lawson-Remer says. No matter the empty campaign promises made by Kelly Martinez that helped her get elected sheriff in 2022. No matter the fact that more cases likely to cost county taxpayers millions are working their way through the courts.

One story had to do with what a judge called “shocking” incompetence by the Sheriff’s Office — the agency allowing 57-plus hours of surveillance footage related to a 2022 death at the downtown Central Jail to be erased because basic procedures weren’t followed.

One was horrifying, not banal: the July 13 death of Corey Dean, 43, in his Vista jail cell. Witnesses reported that for days beforehand he screamed for help. But even as Dean deteriorated mentally — including eating his own waste — other inmates said jail staffers were indifferent. They said that after the burglary suspect was found dead, deputies dragged his stiff, feces-covered corpse out of the cell and “served us breakfast while Mr. Dean was lying dead” in a common area.

Sheriff’s officials declined comment on any specifics, no doubt preparing for the inevitable lawsuit the case will yield. But as gruesome and extreme as Dean’s case was, it is only one of many. Keeping people in custody alive is a challenge that the agency either finds too difficult to handle or considers unimportant. Either way, that’s a devastating comment on Sheriff Martinez and her enablers on the Board of Supervisors.