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In a report released today, the Multnomah County auditor says the sheriff’s office has yet to address some of the recommendations included in a report last year that criticized disciplinary practices and treatment of people with mental illness in county jails.
Around half of the auditor’s 13 recommendations are currently in the process of being implemented. Four of the recommendations, mainly involving disciplinary practices, the sheriff’s office has not addressed at all, the report says.
In spring of last year, the auditor’s office released a report documenting a series of concerns about conditions in county jails. It found that jail deputies relied primarily on isolation to discipline inmates and that Black inmates were twice as likely to have force used against them.
Since that report was released, 10 people have died in county jails. Three were suicides.
“Clearly something has to change,” says Multnomah County Auditor Jennifer McGuirk. “I just want to see it fixed.”
Among the things not fixed, the auditor says, is the use of isolation. “While the [Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office] is making considerable changes in the discipline process...the basic disciplinary sanctions involving isolation and a reduction in time outside the cell remain unchanged,” the report notes.
And, even in areas where the sheriff’s office had made significant progress, problems remained, the auditor found. For example: the sheriff’s office has begun using mental health staff to help “deescalate situations that might lead to use of force.”
But, as WW has reported, mental health staff are in short supply. This results in cascading problems. In one use-of-force incident reviewed by the auditor, “there were no mental health staff available to assist in transferring an adult in custody out of their cell.”
The sheriff’s office did make progress implementing many of the auditor’s recommendations. It built out a new mental health dorm and is in the process of rolling out new inmate classification and disciplinary systems designed to reduce uses of force. All of its deputies have also undergone additional training provided by the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
“I am encouraged that our office has implemented, or is in the process of implementing, nine of the 13 recommendations,” Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell wrote in a letter responding to the audit.