Immigration detainees at the Yuba County Jail began a hunger strike Sunday and had scheduled to end it on Saturday, according to supporters. But, KQED is reporting a meeting with jail staff Friday afternoon convinced the 18 remaining striking detainees to call it off a day earlier.
Advocates say 48 detainees took part initially, with two getting deported on Monday.
The detainees, being held awaiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial, say the facility in Yuba County has unhealthy and inhumane conditions and should be closed.
Yuba County Sheriff Wendell Anderson issued a two-page statement this week, however, that refuted many of the inmate allegations. He says everything from dental care to outside exercise time is offered to the inmates and noted that 22 of what he considers the original 46 detainees have been identified as gang members.
Rhonda Rios Kravitz is with the group Alianza and has served as the inmates voice outside the jail. She says she can’t speak to the criminal history of all of the detainees, but does say they have served their sentences as provided by the criminal justice system and should be released into their communities here in the United States. That includes two gang members convicted of murder.
“They had been gang members. They no longer are gang members. One has received his college degree. One has now become a counselor to teach against gang-related activity. He has become a mentor to many,” Rios Kravitz said.
In his statement, Anderson also maintained that medical treatment, dentistry, phone service, access to outdoors and other inmate programs have been unavailable.
“We provide the best quality of care possible,” the sheriff wrote. “To suggest otherwise is simply demeaning and utterly misleading.”
He added that ICE detainees have access to similar programs as regular inmates, including Narcotics Anonymous and drug treatment programs, anger management and parenting courses.
Yuba County agreed to a court settlement with inmates last week that requires the department to make improvements.
Gay Grunfeld, an attorney who filed suit against the county, said it will make a difference.
"It is going to make major changes in the amount of exercise people get, the amount of time rubber rooms or safety cells can be used,” Grunfield said. “There's strict limits on that, and we are hoping there is improved medical and mental health care staffing.”
The court order requires a dentist be made available once a week, for eight hours, and that inmates be allowed 15 hours per week outside of their cells. It also says the county must do a better job in the prevention of inmate suicide.
The county had previously been under a consent decree following a 1976 lawsuit, but had stopped following it and in 2016 filed a motion to have it voided. Grunfeld joined a group of UC Davis students and their professor in fighting the county's efforts.
Grunfield has seen process in the past couple years. “Because now here is greater mental health staffing than there was before, and there are limits on the amount of time people who are severely mentally ill can be placed in segregation,” she said.
Under the county order, the jail has four months to provide psychiatry services to inmates by telephone, six months to provide radios and four years to make it compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The hunger strike began Monday. The sheriff says the department does not officially recognize a hunger strike as such until it spans nine meals.
“The detainees will be monitored, and medical staff are aware of the circumstances, as are ICE officials.” Anderson said.
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