Jail Changes Policy on the Mentally Retarded : Law enforcement: The mishandling of a 19-year-old inmate leads to measures to identify the disabled and hold them in separate cells.

Ventura County Jail officials have adopted new policies to ensure that mentally disabled suspects are properly identified, separated from dangerous inmates during incarceration and released into the care of family members or social workers.

The policy changes come in response to the jail’s mishandling of Eric Schimmel, a 19-year-old mentally retarded man. Schimmel was placed in the regular cell block over his family’s objections and later disappeared for four days after being released about midnight Aug. 9 onto the streets without his parents’ knowledge.

“That is not the type of thing you want to happen twice,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Bob Brooks, the jail’s top administrator. “We really do care about the inmates we have in custody and our stewardship of them.”

The reforms involve modifications in the entire incarceration process, from booking of suspects to their release.

Sheriff’s deputies who book inmates will be shown a short videotape about how to identify people with developmental disabilities. Those disabilities are mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism, a mental disorder characterized by daydreaming, hallucinations and disregard of reality.

After Schimmel’s case, jail officials moved swiftly to correct the policy shortcomings. Brooks met with representatives of two local agencies that assist the developmentally disabled, Tri-Counties Regional Center and the Assn. For Retarded Citizens, and incorporated many of their recommendations into the reform package.

“It’s good to see that they have responded to the situation,” said Joseph Rhine, senior attorney with Los Angeles-based Protection and Advocacy Inc., a federally funded watchdog group for the developmentally disabled. “They appeared to be awfully intransigent at first about the issue.”

Initially, Assistant Sheriff Richard Bryce maintained that no policies had been violated in Schimmel’s case, despite accusations by family members and disabled rights groups of gross lack of sensitivity.

Now, Brooks acknowledges that the Schimmel case pointed out shortcomings in the jail’s procedures.

For example, one of the medical questions asked of arrestees is: “Are you developmentally disabled?” Mentally retarded people frequently answer no to such questions--as Schimmel did--to mask their disabilities and avoid revealing their vulnerability in a hostile and potentially dangerous environment. Brooks said identification can be difficult because as many as 80% of inmates may have learning disabilities, and one-third have been treated for mental illness, which can appear similar to retardation.

“A lot of our clients can model other people by being quiet, accepting orders and masking their disabilities,” said Betty Lapp, clients rights advocate for the Tri-Counties Regional Center, a state-funded agency that oversees programs for the developmentally disabled. “In any in-depth discussion with them, you quickly find out there is not much behind the superficial layer of social competency.”

During the intake interview, arrestees will now also be asked if they ever had dealings with a social worker or have been a regional center client.

The booking officers who conduct the interviews will also be taught clues to spot developmental disabilities. The list of clues includes speech impediments, poor coordination, inappropriate dress for the season and the inability to button a shirt or tell time from a wall clock.

A second reform entails separating developmentally disabled inmates from the general prison population.

Until now, sheriff’s deputies with little knowledge about the disabled decided whether to place a mentally retarded inmate in regular cell blocks or in separate quarters in the medical wing.

Although federal law does not require that the decision be made by those schooled in handling the handicapped, the jail--and taxpayers--could be liable in a civil lawsuit if any harm befell a mentally retarded inmate placed with violent prisoners, Rhine said.

Brooks said the placement of handicapped inmates will now be decided by a member of the jail’s medical staff or a regional center caseworker summoned for an assessment. If there is even a remote chance that the person might be victimized by other inmates, Brooks said, he or she will be placed in a segregated unit.

“Some of our clients could escape detection,” said Pat Budo, the Regional Center’s chief of case management. “They are sharp and street-wise enough that the general (jail) population may be OK for them. But if jail officials have a request for segregation from someone who knows the person, they should honor it.”

Those placed in separate quarters will wear a colored wristband similar to ones worn by inmates with medical problems, with an additional color stripe to specify developmental disabilities. The wristband will help ensure that a family member or caseworker is alerted when the inmate is released.

Booking files of the developmentally disabled will also carry 3-by-5 cards similar to ones identifying inmates whose victims need to be contacted about their pending release, or whom authorities want to track once they are freed.

It is difficult to determine how many developmentally disabled people pass through County Jail per year because neither the jail nor the regional center keep such statistics. Brooks said the new booking forms will allow an annual count to be taken.

Brooks said few mentally retarded people are booked in County Jail because law enforcement officers generally issue them citations requiring them to appear before a judge. The officers may also have a second option of releasing the suspect and later filing a request for prosecution with the district attorney’s office.

“It’s very infrequently that we actually see them booked,” Brooks said.

Most crimes they commit are misdemeanors, such as impulsive acts of shoplifting; inappropriate expressions of anger, such as yelling in a restaurant; or being overly demonstrative sexually with a partner in public or reaching for a stranger, experts said.

“Rarely are our clients involved in premeditated crimes,” said Fred Odom, a supervisor in the regional center’s Oxnard office. “When they are, it often involves people who are using them as a dupe, the plan has already been thought out for them, and they participate because they want social acceptance.”

Regional center officials said that before Schimmel’s case, they could not recall any instances in which a mentally retarded adult was mishandled at County Jail. The reforms, they said, are nonetheless welcome.

“The feeling I get is that people in the justice system don’t want anything to go wrong with our clients,” said Pat Dion, a program coordinator in the Oxnard office. “If not from a moral standpoint, I’m sure from a legal one.”