The dad and mom of a person who died whereas in custody on the Vista jail filed a lawsuit this week alleging he ought to have been positioned in housing designated for mentally sick detainees, however was as an alternative positioned in solitary confinement for the ultimate two weeks of his life.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Diego federal court docket alleges Corey Michael Dean’s psychological well being points have been recognized to jail medical employees, but he was not supplied satisfactory medicine or psychiatric care whereas housed on the Vista Detention Facility.
Due to the alleged lack of care, Dean “decompensated and became erratic and unpredictable,” in keeping with the lawsuit, which states that deputies positioned him in solitary confinement after he started “screaming, crying and acting bizarrely.”
Medical and psychological well being suppliers noticed that Dean was partaking in weird habits and required help for fundamental self-care and social abilities, the lawsuit states. Other inmates housed close by reported that he “screamed, cried and begged for help and medical assistance” and was pushing the cell’s intercom button each day for assist, but was ignored.
Dean, 43, allegedly instructed deputies he was sick and instructed inmates he was urinating on himself to remain heat.
He additionally smeared feces on himself to achieve deputies’ consideration, amongst different fruitless makes an attempt, however the lawsuit alleges Dean was ignored and deliberately left within the contaminated cell for greater than two weeks.
Dean was discovered lifeless round 3 a.m. July 13, slightly below a month after he was booked into jail.
The lawsuit alleges county officers have been conscious that inmates with severe psychological well being diseases have been prone to significantly declining whereas in solitary confinement, as a number of different inmates with related psychological well being points have been positioned in solitary confinement and died in San Diego County jails.
One psychiatrist and correctional well being knowledgeable who toured San Diego County’s administrative separation items — the place inmates are positioned in solitary confinement — wrote in a single subheading of a report, “Conditions in San Diego County Jail’s Administrative Separation Units Constitute Some of the Harshest, Most Restrictive Forms of Solitary Confinement I Have Ever Witnessed in a Jail System,” the lawsuit alleges.
That physician’s report included a assessment of Dean’s case, which said Dean “should have received additional care, and certainly should have been removed from the Administrative Separation unit. Mr. Dean’s death represents an egregious case of neglect.”
–City News Service