Plaintiffs Ask Federal Court to Intervene to Fix Unconstitutional Conditions at Yuba County Jail

According to plaintiffs’ court filing:  “The Yuba County Jail in Marysville is a dangerous place, rife with constitutional violations.  Most of the prisoners unfortunate enough to be confined there are pre-trial and immigration detainees who are not even serving a criminal sentence.  Decades after obtaining a Consent Decree and years after bringing ongoing problems to the attention of County Counsel, the Plaintiff class of prisoners seeks the Court’s intervention to stop the most  harmful violations of their rights.  These include the County’s deliberate indifference to suicide hazards, woefully inadequate medical and mental health care, segregation of the mentally ill including in unsanitary ‘rubber rooms’ covered in blood and feces, and the lack of meaningful access to exercise and recreation.  In the last 30 months alone, there have been at least forty-one suicide attempts at the jail.  In the same time period, prisoners with mental illness have been regularly placed in isolation cells with shuttered windows for days at a time and deprived of access to outdoor exercise for weeks on end.  The Yuba County Grand Jury calls the oldest section of the Jail a ‘dungeon.'”