A group of our members visited misdemeanor court with the help of Stephanie Sontag, a member and retired judge. It was interesting to watch and also talk to the judge before and after the morning cases. We are now looking to visit one or more of our jails. We will discuss the goals of this tour at our November 9 meeting, along with possible Criminal Justice events in the spring and new laws having to do with Criminal Justice. We decided to alternate having speakers and discussions each month.
Paul Parker, the Executive Officer of CLERB (Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board) for San Diego County since November 2020, spoke at our last meeting. He had been a member of CLERB in 2017 but left after they were forced to dismiss 22 investigations of deaths of persons in law enforcement custody due to a lack of investigation before the deadline had passed. He came back as Executive Officer after the George Floyd murder and CLERB was strengthened. He thought he might be able to have a more positive impact with the new improvements. He had worked in San Diego County and four other counties as a death investigator, after having been a police officer earlier.
He spoke to us regarding the reports that his office has completed regarding the deaths in jails:
One of the problems he pointed out is that deaths caused by a wide variety of reasons can be attributed to “natural causes”, including persons not getting their required medications or not being taken seriously when they complain of medical problems.
On the hopeful side, the Sheriff’s Department is now taking up some of CLERB’s and other organizations’ suggestions. We will continue to monitor this and work with other local groups who are concerned with in-custody problems.