County : Judge OKs Inspection of Jail Medical Facilities

A federal judge has given the American Civil Liberties Union permission to have a lawyer and a doctor inspect medical facilities in County Jail, an ACLU lawyer said Thursday.

The lawyer, Richard P. Herman, said he was especially concerned about the 18 medical observation cells in the main men’s jail in Santa Ana. Herman said the cells, originally built to hold 30 inmates, now have 56 beds.

The medical observation area “is probably now the most overcrowded area of the jail in terms of rated capacity (of 30),” Herman said. He said that because of the layout of the cells, it is difficult, if not impossible, for a jailer to monitor inmates in the cells constantly, as can be done in the regular medical ward.

On Jan. 31, a 25-year-old Santa Fe Springs man, Arthur G. Oviedo, was found dead in a medical observation cell. The district attorney’s office, which investigates all deaths in the jail, is looking into Oviedo’s death.

Herman said U.S. District Judge William P. Gray in Los Angeles gave the ACLU permission Wednesday to have a lawyer and medical expert inspect all medical facilities at the jail at any reasonable time. He said Gray also ordered the county to provide jail medical care studies done in 1985 and 1986 by an outside consultant.

In addition, Herman said, the judge ordered the county to turn over its reviews of all deaths of inmates in custody since November, 1985, a number Herman estimated at a dozen.

Herman said the judge’s order came at the request of the ACLU and without notification to the county, which will present its case at a hearing later. County officials were unavailable for comment Thursday because of the Lincoln’s Birthday holiday.

Herman’s lawsuit to end overcrowding in the jail led Gray to find the county supervisors and sheriff in contempt in 1985 for not heeding his 1978 order to improve conditions. The county has since reduced the number of inmates in the jail.