County Says Jails Probe Is Welcome : Crime: Justice Department investigation into alleged rights violations will carry weight, may clear the air, top officials say.

Hoping that a federal investigation will produce a definitive report on jail conditions, top San Diego County officials said Friday that they welcome a planned U.S. Justice Department inquiry into the county’s overcrowded jail system.

In a letter sent last month to county officials, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. John Dunne said the department intends to investigate reports that local prisoners are routinely deprived of their constitutional rights.

In a harshly critical 1989 report, the San Diego County Grand Jury outlined a broad pattern of alleged mistreatment of inmates by deputies in the jails, and press accounts have detailed additional similar allegations.

“The information we possess at this stage reveals possible constitutional violations regarding medical and mental health care, facility safety (due to inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate violence), facility sanitation and environmental health and safety,” Dunne said in a letter sent to outgoing Board of Supervisors Chairman Leon Williams.

“The initiation of this investigation in no way indicates any prejudgment on our part that federal rights are being investigated,” the letter says. “If any violations are found, we will look forward to conferring with you and your staff concerning corrective actions that might be appropriate.”

Copies of Dunne’s letter were also sent to outgoing Sheriff John Duffy, whose management of the county’s six-jail system drew strong criticism in the grand jury report; Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller and U.S. Atty. William Braniff.

In the letter, Dunne did not specify either the source of his information about local jail conditions or what prompted the Justice Department to launch its investigation. Similarly, county officials said Friday that they do not know whether the probe stems from a local request or simply from the extensive media coverage of the issue.

Citing confidentiality guidelines, Justice Department spokesman Amy Casner on Friday refused to divulge the impetus for the investigation. A determination on whether to pursue civil or criminal remedies will not be made until the investigation is completed, she said.

Meanwhile, top county officials, including new Sheriff Jim Roache, who was sworn in Friday, expressed hopes that the federal investigation will be, in Roache’s words, “a definitive, exhaustive look from top to bottom” at the jails that, because it comes from outside San Diego County, will be given added stature.

“There’s always a degree of inherent suspicion whenever any government agency conducts an internal investigation,” Roache said shortly after taking the oath of office at the County Administration Building. “Bringing in investigators from the outside will dispel any doubts and help to clear the air.”

Similarly, Williams said the “unquestioned objectivity” of the Justice Department’s investigation should add weight to the findings, and Supervisor Susan Golding added, “There’s undeniable merit in this coming from the outside.”

Noting that jail crowding, deputies’ behavior toward inmates and the facilities’ overall condition have been under intense scrutiny for years, some county officials wondered aloud Friday whether the federal probe will simply be an updated version of past investigations by the grand jury, the FBI and the Sheriff’s Department itself.

However, Dist. Atty. Miller--noting that consultants, whose expertise ranges from medical treatment of inmates to jail safety, will assist in the investigation--suggested that the federal study “may well go beyond (past inquiries) and shed some new light” on the overall state of the jails. In his letter, Dunne indicated that the consultants and FBI agents may visit local jails during the investigation, for which no timetable has been specified.

“Since (federal investigators) will start with access to all the files from prior investigations, I’d expect this to be the most complete, thorough investigation possible,” Miller said. “True, the grand jury in its watchdog role looked at many of the same areas. But I can’t say we used experts in the field, as will be done this time.”

Since officially declaring a jail crowding crisis in the late 1980s, the supervisors and other county officials have persistently argued that that longstanding problem and many of the jails’ other woes are attributable primarily to a lack of sufficient funding.

Proceeds from a half-cent sales tax increase narrowly approved by San Diego voters in 1988, estimated to raise $1.6 billion for new jails and courts over the next decade, have been held in escrow pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the election. Later this year, the state Supreme Court is expected to rule on the opponents’ contention that the election violated the provisions of Proposition 13, the landmark 1978 statewide property tax-cutting initiative.

Absent those dollars, beleaguered county officials lament, they will lack the funds to even open the nearly completed 1,040-bed East Mesa Detention Facility in south San Diego County, or to undertake any major expansion or renovation of existing jails. Regardless of the Justice Department’s findings, that “will remain the unpleasant reality,” Golding said.

“We already know the major problems--some need money to be solved, some need management to be solved,” Golding said. “But, it never hurts to have a second or third opinion.”

As a result of the jails’ chronic crowding, the American Civil Liberties Union filed two lawsuits against the county that resulted in court-mandated inmate population restrictions. After years of exceeding those ceilings, the county last month finally came in compliance with the limits.

In its scathing 1989 report, the grand jury sharply criticized the sheriff’s operation of the jails, saying that inmates were routinely beaten by deputies, including a notorious “Rambo Squad”; that there were internal cover-ups of the assaults, and that Duffy and other top department leaders allowed many deputies to “delight in cruelty to others.”

Saying that most of the serious abuses have since been corrected, Sheriff Roache said he does not expect the new investigation to “show any major problem with either the Sheriff’s Department or the county.” In addition, he optimistically suggested that the probe could help restore public confidence in the jails’ operation.

“The public needs to be assured that there is no wrongdoing in the jails, and that the jails are being operated in a proper and humane manner,” Roache said. “If problems exist, they will be corrected. That’s an absolute assurance on my part. To the extent that this might give the public more confidence that that will happen, it’s a useful thing.”