RBGG represents a class of prisoners at Yuba County Jail in an ongoing lawsuit over the inadequacy of medical and mental health treatment at the facility. See previous posts about the lawsuit: Plaintiffs ask federal court to intervene to fix unconstitutional conditions at Yuba County Jail and KQED Radio Report Shines a Light on Unconstitutional Conditions at Yuba County Jail.
An article in the Sacramento Bee on February 2, 2018, Berkeley literature grad dies alone at Yuba County jail, reports on the lawsuit filed by the family of Bertram Hiscock, diagnosed with serious mental illness, who committed suicide in the jail in January 2017 while locked in a rubber “safety” cell.
The Bee reports that “Since his death, lawyers for the jail inmates and county authorities have been involved in talks aiming at settling the legal dispute over conditions in the jail. A settlement conference held on Jan. 5 in federal court in Sacramento resulted in ‘significant progress,’ according to a minute order filed in the case, and Gay Grunfeld, the inmates’ lead attorney, said she was hopeful about the talks.
“We have been involved in confidential settlement negotiations for many, many months, and we will continue to work hard to resolve the issues that exist in our case,” she said. “Of course, I think everyone, including the county of Yuba, would agree that Bertram Hiscock’s death was tragic,” she added.”