Following critical inspections, Sacramento jail relocates federal detainees

For the second time in less than a year, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department has relocated its population of federal immigration detainees at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove.

The internal migration occurred December 30, 2015, on the heels of an SN&R investigation into detention conditions that more than a dozen detainees, as well as their attorneys and advocates, alleged were inhumane. (SN&R published its story on December 31, 2015.)

Prior to the move, detainees spent about six months in the Roger Bauman Facility, or “RBF,” a standalone housing unit at the northern portion of the complex that was built in the 1960s and deemed “antiquated” by a Sacramento County Grand Jury in 1999.

Budget cuts reportedly forced RBF’s closure in 2010, though it was reopened two years later to accommodate an influx of inmates when the state realigned its prison system. Since, it’s been used on an as-needed basis, explained sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Tony Turnbull.

“RBF is able to operate independently of other housing locations and as such is able to be opened or closed with little impact,” he wrote in an email. “Historically RBF has been closed each year when overall facility inmate counts are low. During the month of December 2015, facility counts reached a 12 month low allowing for population consolidation to improve services, increase staff oversight, provided greater operational efficiency and decrease costs.”

Detainees were initially relocated to RBF from a housing unit known as “KBF” in August 2015. Then, on December 30 of last year, they were moved back to KBF, which is located near other barracks-style housing units in the heart of the penitentiary compound.

A sheriff’s deputy who spoke to SN&R on the condition of anonymity suggested a different reason for the six-month round-trip.

The deputy believed command staff wanted detainees housed in the remote RBF to prevent federal inspectors from visiting the entire jail when they examined living conditions. And once the inspections were completed for the year, they moved detainees back to the main custodial area.

“They can go wherever the detainees are,” the deputy said of inspectors from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which has a contract with the sheriff’s department. Command staff, he added, wanted to limit ICE’s reach.

ICE inspectors visited RCCC four times last year, and most recently in early December. Because of a number of deficiencies cited during these inspections, ICE stopped sending detainees to RCCC for a period of approximately three months, but reactivated its contract on December 21. After RCCC’s detainee population dropped to 73 that month, it has since rebounded to 117 as of January 22, according to figures provided by Turnbull.

The contract allows ICE to house up to 244 immigration detainees as they navigate civil deportation proceedings. The agreement provides convenience to ICE and extra revenue to the sheriff’s department, which will receive approximately $4 million this fiscal year, less than it has in the past. The sheriff’s department has expressed uncertainty that its contract will be renewed when it expires in 2018.

According to booking logs obtained by SN&R, ICE placed as many as 76 individuals under sheriff’s custody during a 10-day period ending February 3, with half coming from Los Angeles County. Most of the rest originated from the Central Valley, including 15 from Fresno County.

In a previous interview, Sheriff Scott Jones, a first-time congressional candidate, told SN&R the ICE contract was mutually beneficial because it meant that undocumented immigrants were being detained “close to that support and family structure.” Of the contract, he added, “I think it serves that undocumented population far more than it hurts them.”

Jesus Olaguez disagrees. A Modesto resident whose parents brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 1, Olaguez was serving a probation sentence for a domestic violence charge when his probation officer handed him into ICE custody in June of last year. He’s been detained in RCCC for more than seven months, representing himself in a plea for amnesty.

In letters and interviews, he and other detainees, as well as those who visit them, described unsanitary living conditions and food. There aren’t enough clothes or bed covers, and the ones they receive bring rashes, they complain. Medical attention for ailments like diabetes and asthma comes only after long delays. And when they try to speak up, the detainees attest, they are denied grievance forms or branded snitches by ICE’s own liaison to the jail.

Those issues haven’t disappeared since the re-relocation, say Olaguez and Mary Helen Doherty, coordinator of a community visitation program called Faithful Friends-Amigos Fieles. Her group has heard mixed reviews since the move. “Some say it’s better. Some say it’s not better, but it’s not worse,” she said. She added that while KBF is a roomier facility, one downside is that detainees no longer go outside for yard time, but recreate in a covered, concrete structure. “They don’t see the sky,” she said.

Olaguez accused guards of confiscating the detainees’ religious items during pod inspections and smearing their dining table with trash. “We are tired of being treated this way, we all paid for the crime we committed,” he wrote. “We are simply awaiting deportation or looking for a relief to stay in the U.S.”

He requested SN&R use his full name in the hopes of attracting an attorney.