Gay Grunfeld, Michael Bien, Michael Freedman, and Alexander Gourse of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP (RBGG), along with the King Hall Civil Rights Clinic at the University of California Davis School of Law, represent a certified class of all prisoners in the Yuba County Jail in Hedrick v. Grant, Eastern District of California No. 2:76 CV 00162. The parties reached an agreement on an Amended Consent Decree improving conditions and disability access at the jail on August 23, 2018. U.S. Magistrate Judge Brennan of the Eastern District of California granted final approval to the Amended Consent Decree on January 30, 2019. Plaintiffs’ counsel are now monitoring the County’s compliance with the decree.
An article in the Marysville Appeal-Democrat on April 23, 2021, Jail making changes to prevent inmate self-harm, summarizes recent changes at the jail based on the requirements of the consent decree, including modifications to mitigate the risk of suicide and other measures to bring the jail into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. RBGG released monitoring reports of the jail in June and October of 2020 finding that Yuba County was not in compliance with the consent decree. And the latest report, issued on April 5,2021 also identified a number of serious concerns.
According to the Appeal-Democrat article: “’There are a number of areas from the October report that are still outstanding,’ said Gay Grunfeld, managing partner with Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP – the firm representing the inmates. The latest monitoring report of the jail was published on April 5. The report stated concerns over the jail using safety and sobering cells in certain cases for long-term housing of inmates with severe mental illness and inmates in need of inpatient mental health care not getting the care they need, along with other concerns.
‘We’re continuing to monitor conditions at the jail,’ Grunfeld said. The firm represents all Yuba County Jail inmates, including ICE detainees. ‘Jails are very dangerous places,’ Grunfeld said. ‘They require a tremendous effort to keep the inhabitants safe.'”
The April 2021 report is here: Hedrick Monitoring Report (Redacted), 4-5-21
The October 2020 report is here: Monitoring Tour Report – Yuba County Jail – Apr-Aug 2020, 10-9-2020