As of Friday, there were 251 people were in administrative separation in San Diego jails, a Sheriff\u2019s Office spokesperson said via email. Slightly fewer than half have been flagged as having a serious mental illness.<\/p>\n
That designation \u201cdoes not directly reflect their need for a higher level of care,\u201d Lt. David Collins said. \u201cFor example, an incarcerated person can be identified as (seriously mentally ill) but also be medication compliant, not have behavioral issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The request for a preliminary injunction, which is expected to be contested at a hearing in November, was filed hours after lawyers for plaintiffs and defendants met for their most recent settlement conference.<\/p>\n
Settlement negotiations are scheduled to continue Oct. 28; if no deal is reached, a trial is scheduled to begin in January.<\/p>\n
The injunction petition describes a host of conditions that plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers say create real harm for the men and women in sheriff\u2019s custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople with mental illness housed in solitary confinement are vulnerable to deterioration and decompensation of their mental health condition,\u201d the 32-page filing states. \u201cPlacing such individuals in isolation intensifies their symptoms and puts them at substantial risk of psychosis, self-harm and suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Correctional](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Dkt.-937-5-at-page-75.jpg\")
Correctional health care expert Dr. Pablo Stewart took this photo of an administrative separation cell at the San Diego Central Jail that was occupied by a person with mental illness. Photo courtesy of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld.<\/p>\n
The declarations that accompany the petition \u2014 16 in all, including one from a correctional healthcare expert and one from the sister of a man who died in an isolation cell \u2014 support the filing\u2019s arguments.<\/p>\n
Owerrie Bacon Jr. described spending a year in administrative separation after being arrested in 2023. He wrote that he was supposed to be let out of his cell for an hour a day but often got less than that.<\/p>\n
Bacon said he once was locked down for nearly a week.<\/p>\n
The brief reprieve from isolation is not trivial. The only time people in administrative separation can take a shower or make a phone call is when they are let out \u2014 and even then, they are alone in their unit\u2019s dayroom.<\/p>\n
Last year, Bacon was found incompetent to stand trial and transferred to a state psychiatric hospital. There, he received regular treatment, and his mental health improved, he wrote in his declaration.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, when he was returned to a San Diego jail, he began to decompensate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in administrative separation is bad for my mental health,\u201d Bacon wrote. \u201cBeing so isolated, I sometimes feel like the walls are closing in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sheriff\u2019s Office declined to comment on the request for a preliminary injunction or the sworn testimonials from people in custody<\/p>\n
State guidelines and sheriff\u2019s policy require that people in administrative separation be provided 10 hours of out-of-cell time each week \u2014 seven hours of dayroom time and at least three hours of recreation in an area that \u201callows for the opportunity of physical exertion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly every person who provided a declaration wrote that they never received their three hours of recreation time, let alone seven hours of dayroom time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt George Bailey, I receive only 50 minutes of out-of-cell time each day,\u201d Betancourt wrote. \u201cWhen I do get to go into the dayroom, I am placed in a cage<\/a> and treated like an animal. The only way that I can socialize while in this cage is through screaming at other people because I am too far away from them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was at Vista, I did not get to go out into the yard at all and was never asked if I wanted to do so,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Collins said there are reasons dayroom and out-of-cell time might be canceled or cut short, such as critical incidents occurring in the jail, staffing shortages, maintenance issues or scheduled events, like a court hearing or medical clinic visit.<\/p>\n Three years ago, after the medical examiner ruled that Lonnie Rupard died from neglect<\/a> in a solitary confinement cell in the Central Jail, the Sheriff\u2019s Office said it would start performing\u00a0wellness checks<\/a> involving weekly visits from a multidisciplinary team to \u201cdetermine the collaborative, individualized care needed to treat patients.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent court filing from the county in the Dunsmore case described a \u201cmultidisciplinary team that makes weekly \u2018wellness rounds\u2019 in the administrative separation unit of the jail.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese rounds occur 52 weeks a year,\u201d the filing said. \u201cThis approach can lead to better overall outcomes and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n But nearly all 14 declarations described the wellness checks \u2014 conducted cell-side by healthcare providers,\u00a0with a deputy standing nearby \u2014 as ineffective.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mental health staff who came to see me once or twice a month did not provide confidential counseling,\u201d Miguel Altamirano said in his<\/p>\n declaration. \u201cThey would ask basic questions and our conversation would last around two minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Altamirano, who spent several months in isolation at the Vista jail, wrote that people in his unit regularly scream and cry for help but get no help.<\/p>\n This assertion was echoed in other declarations.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people who yell at demons, yell at the air, say that they\u2019re hearing voices,\u201d wrote Yolanda Maroni, who had been in an isolation cell at the Las Colinas women\u2019s jail in Santee for a month when Dunsmore lawyers took her sworn declaration.<\/p>\n Larry Millete has been in administrative separation in both the Vista jail and the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa. During one stretch, he spent more than six months in a unit known as \u201cthe hole,\u201d in a cell with only a small window in the door.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order to mitigate my symptoms of claustrophobia, I would sit directly next to the door and try and look out that window,\u201d he wrote in his declaration.<\/p>\n Unlike others who submitted declarations, Millete said he had been offered confidential mental health visits where he \u201cwas comfortable fully expressing my mental health needs.\u201d<\/p>\n But during wellness rounds, he wrote, \u201cI was not comfortable fully expressing myself because custody staff was present with a body camera recording the interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n Collins said that \u201cstaff make every attempt to identify confidential space\u201d for people who request a confidential visit, or if a person seems in need of an evaluation in such a setting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office has identified the need for additional confidential space and is currently exploring solutions to include portable confidential booths to accommodate the growth in the services we provide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Additional testimony raises another\u00a0issue: According to a declaration provided by Keith Skerke, the Sheriff\u2019s Office has blocked the telephone number of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld, the San Francisco law firm acting as lead counsel for the Dunsmore plaintiffs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I try to call the phone number, I hear a message that says \u2018This number has been restricted\u2019 and then the call ends,\u201d wrote Skerke, who is currently locked up in the Vista Detention Facility.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand from speaking with other incarcerated persons that they have not been able to call that phone number either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The sheriff\u2019s office declined to answer a question about the issue.<\/p>\n \u2018I was horrified\u2019<\/p>\n The Dunsmore plaintiffs\u2019 petition notes that since 2021, at least seven people with mental illness have died in administrative separation by suicide or due to inadequate medical care in jail.<\/p>\n This includes two particularly gruesome deaths in July.<\/p>\n Early in the morning of July 13, Corey Dean died in his isolation cell at the Vista jail.<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a>, sheriff\u2019s officials said deputies called 911 immediately after finding him unresponsive, and that despite lifesaving measures, he did not survive.<\/p>\n Days later, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported based on a series of sworn declarations, gathered by a Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld attorney, that the 43-year-old had pleaded for help<\/a> for days but was largely ignored.<\/p>\n After Dean was found dead, deputies dragged his feces-covered body and the mattress he died on into the common area, where it remained in plain view for hours, according to witnesses.<\/p>\n \u201cThey served us breakfast while Mr. Dean was lying dead in the middle of the dayroom,\u201d said Jesse Gonzales, who was locked in a nearby isolation cell in the days before Dean died. \u201cThey did not remove his body until shortly before serving us lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n In a sworn declaration of her own, Dean\u2019s sister Melissa testified that sheriff\u2019s officials told her that her brother, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in his 20s, died a \u201cnatural death.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was horrified to read this article and prayed that my parents would not see it,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIf Corey had only been removed from the solitary unit where he was and placed in a safer and more caring environment, he might still be with us.\u201d<\/p>\n Two weeks after Dean\u2019s death, Karim Talib died a similar\u00a0death<\/a> in the San Diego Central Jail.<\/p>\n Witnesses said deputies were repeatedly warned that Talib urgently needed medical attention. In his final days, they said, he had stopped taking his medication, had stopped eating and was left covered in his own waste.<\/p>\n \u201cThe day after Mr. Talib entered Unit 7\/E, the entire unit began to smell like feces,\u201d detainee Maurice Vasquez wrote. \u201cOther incarcerated persons in the unit were yelling that they were concerned that the new person who had entered the unit was unwell.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheriff\u2019s officials declined at the time to discuss either of the deaths or the sworn testimony provided by witnesses. But in a statement, a department spokesperson said\u00a0the sheriff faces major challenges treating people with serious medical and mental health needs.<\/p>\n \u201cOur jails have become the region\u2019s largest mental health provider by default \u2014 not by design,\u201d Lt. David Collins wrote in an August email. \u201cThis is a public-health failure, not a criminal justice solution.\u201d<\/p>\n No sunlight, fresh air<\/p>\n Administrative separation is not supposed to be punishment.<\/p>\n Rather, the housing status is reserved for people who are believed to present a danger to themselves or others or who are unable \u201cto adjust and conform to the minimum standards expected of those in mainline housing or designated special housing,\u201d sheriff\u2019s policy says.<\/p>\n \u201cAdministrative separation shall consist of separate and secure housing, but shall not involve any other deprivation of privileges, other than is necessary to obtain the objective of protecting the incarcerated person, staff or public,\u201d the policy says.<\/p>\n But according to declaration after declaration, people housed in isolation are regularly denied privileges and basic services.<\/p>\n William Sterling had been in administrative separation for nearly 18 months when attorneys took his declaration Sept. 4. He said he had to shower with shackles on his wrists and ankles.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not receive any programming in Unit 6\/C,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Aside from 50 minutes out of his cell every other day, Sterling wrote, \u201cI am kept locked up alone \u2026 without access to a shower or a telephone or the ability to meaningfully communicate with other incarcerated people.\u201d<\/p>\n Some people housed in administrative separation say they are not told why they are there, or when they might be returned to the general population.<\/p>\n Julio Serrano spent seven months in a Vista isolation cell and often was not let out for even one hour a day. Hearing the constant screaming and other people people talking to themselves exacerbated his mental distress, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I asked deputies why I am housed in administrative separation, they refused to give me paperwork,\u201d he wrote in a declaration signed last month. \u201cI currently do not have phone access in my housing unit. I also do not receive any programming.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Central Jail, Christopher Hawkins said even when he is let out of his cell, it\u2019s often late at night when he can\u2019t call his attorney or family.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nowhere to exercise and I have never had access to sunlight or fresh air,\u201d he wrote. \u201cUntil I was recently sentenced to prison, I had no expectation of being released from administrative separation.\u201d<\/p>\n Parties at odds<\/p>\n The Dunsmore lawsuit dates back to 2020, when Darryl Dunsmore sued the county saying the San Diego Sheriff\u2019s Office was failing to provide proper food, healthcare and other services.<\/p>\n His complaint was expanded into a class-action case<\/a> in 2023. The plaintiffs now include anyone who is, has been or will be detained in San Diego County jail.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/VDF-2.jpg\")
A mental health clinician and a deputy conduct a wellness check at the Vista Detention Facility. Photo courtesy of the San Diego Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n