New Intake, Release Center to Upgrade Jail Health Care

Orange County jail officials question claims by the American Civil Liberties Union that three inmates who died in the men’s medical ward earlier this year would be alive today if they had been housed at the new intake and release center, which is to open in several weeks.

But health officials at the jail agree that medical care at the new facility will be a significant improvement in many ways, including inmate safety.

The three who died--John Franklin Wilcox, 71, Arthur Oviedo, 25, and Juan Ceja, 27--could not be seen inside their cells by any jail or medical people who might have been able to save them. At the new facility, every inmate’s cell can be seen at all times by a jail deputy or nurse from one central location.

That is only one of the advantages mentioned when jail officials discuss the new center, which the county’s General Services Agency says should be ready for occupancy by early September. It is located just west of the main men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana and will have 380 beds in addition to its 96-bed medical ward.

“The difference between the new medical facility and the old facility is night and day,” said ACLU attorney Dick Herman, who has led a two-year battle in federal court against the county over jail conditions. “The new place is bigger and better. And safer.”

In recent interviews, the jail’s medical director, Dr. Christopher R. Lundquist, and the medical administrator, Frank Madrigal, laid out the plans for the new facility and discussed the major differences between it and the old medical ward:

- The present ward has 18 isolation cells, which each usually hold three inmates, and two 35-inmate dormitories for chronically ill patients. Inmates are sometimes hidden from the view of deputies and nurses in both of these areas. The present ward also has a 15-inmate infirmary and a 15-inmate mental health unit, which are in plain view of a duty station, as well as four safety cells (commonly called rubber rooms), that soon will be equipped with television cameras to monitor inmates.

(Jail officials do not permit photographs to be taken inside the jail. They also declined a reporter’s request to tour the new intake and release center.)

- The new facility has a main floor and a mezzanine, each with 48 cells forming a semi-circle around a duty station. The nurses’ duty station is on an elevated platform to make it easier to see both levels and into all 96 cells. Each single-inmate cell has a door that is almost entirely glass. “At all times, a nurse or a jail deputy can see every single cell from that one station,” Madrigal said.

- The existing jail now has a tiny nurses’ station near the police parking yard, where each inmate is screened before being booked. The station is overrun on busy nights with police officers waiting for arrestees to be taken into custody.

- The new intake and release center has a larger, more comfortable nurses’ station. Unlike the current facility, it also has an adjacent examination room. There is yet another room where inmates who need attention can be treated before being booked. “I don’t know what you would call that room, but it’s going to be a tremendous help to us,” Madrigal said. “Once in a while, you will get a fellow who is drunk and doesn’t want to be booked into jail. We can put him in this room and say, “Hey, dude, sit here awhile until you calm down.’ ”

- The new center will have more testing equipment, which is expected to reduce jail medical officials’ reliance on outside laboratory work.

- The medical staff will jump from three full-time doctors and 60 nurses to four full-time doctors, one part-time physician and 93 nurses. The jail also has 10 part-time doctors under contract. That number will remain the same.

The new 96-bed facility will not mean 96 additional medical beds for the jail, however.

Under current plans, the medical staff will lose about 30 of the beds in the present medical facility in a remodeling project at the main men’s jail. In effect, the infirmary and mental health units will move next door to the intake and release center.

“We still haven’t worked out all the details,” Madrigal said. “The intake and release center is supposed to be for new inmates coming into the jail. But the sheriff’s people are giving us a lot of latitude in how we use our section in it.”

Refused to Interfere

After the deaths of Wilcox, Oviedo and Ceja, the ACLU two months ago asked U.S. Dist. Judge William P. Gray to order that television cameras be installed in some of the isolation cells in the present medical facility. But Gray refused to interfere.

Investigators from the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance and the U.S. attorney’s office are scheduled to look into the jail deaths in the next few months in response to requests by Oviedo’s family. A former medical ward inmate, Jerry T. Pick, 23, has been charged with murder in the deaths of Wilcox and Oviedo.

“If those three men had been in the new intake and release center, they would not have died,” Herman said.

Wilcox died Jan. 17 after a beating in an isolation cell he shared with Pick. Oviedo was strangled Jan. 31 in another isolation cell, which he shared with Pick. Coroner’s officials and jail authorities said that Ceja, who was alone in a cell, hanged himself March 8 in a similar cell and died a week later. All three of the inmates were out of sight of any deputies or medical personnel.

Safer Environment

Lundquist, in testimony before Judge Gray, disagreed that officials could have responded quickly enough to save all three men. But Lundquist did agree that the new intake and release center would have been a safer environment.

Lundquist cautioned, however, that “at the intake and release center . . . if someone wants to jump quickly to do something violent, it’s not always possible to prevent it.”

Officials are uncertain about how soon the medical ward will be in full operation after the new center opens. The problem is finding enough nurses to take the jobs available.

“Quite frankly, it’s hard to hire nurses because jails get such bad press,” Madrigal said. “But once we hire them we have very little turnover. They find out that it’s a better working environment than they expected.”

While the ACLU is pleased with many of the improvements in jail medical care, Herman suggested that more changes could be made.

Cameras in Medical Section

He would prefer to close the four safety rooms, which he considers “barbaric” and a way for jail medical officials to avoid treating people with mental illness.

Herman also wants cameras in the medical isolation section of the jail and a doctor on duty 24 hours, although jail officials say that isn’t practical.

Herman’s main complaint is what he believes is “an attitude problem” among jail officials. He contends that the inmates are given less consideration than they should be simply because they are inmates. Jail officials vehemently contest Herman’s argument.

Still, Herman is satisfied that medical care will be greatly improved with the opening of the intake and release center.

“Visibility is extremely important for the inmates’ safety,” Herman said. “And there’s no doubt it’s a better set-up for medical care.”

Making Adjustments

In recent weeks, jail officials have been making adjustments to more easily observe inmates in the old facility, too.

Less than two weeks ago, county officials finished installing new doors that improve sight and sound in the medical ward’s 18 isolation cells.

Before, each cell had a small, one-foot-square glass window, which made it difficult to see inside. Now each door has a window four times that size, with holes that allow deputies to hear what’s happening inside.

“The new doors make a tremendous difference,” Lundquist said. “Not only does it improve visibility but things are also less claustrophobic for the inmates.”

INTAKE AND RELEASE CENTER MEDICAL WARD

The medical ward at the new Intake and Release Center, next to the Orange County jail in downtown Santa Ana, will allow one deputy at a duty station to see 96 cells. A deputy can sit on a raised, circular, glassed-in platform and look down at 48 cells, and they look up at 48 cells atop the first set. Many of the cells in the medical ward at the regular men’s jail are out of sight from a duty station. The medical ward is one of five similar housing section in the center. Three of the other are for men and one is for women. The center is scheduled to open in late August.

Source: Orange County General Services Agency