The parents of a man who died while in custody at the Vista jail filed a lawsuit this week alleging he should have been placed in housing designated for mentally ill detainees, but was instead placed in solitary confinement for the final two weeks of his life.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Diego federal court alleges Corey Michael Dean’s mental health issues were known to jail medical staff, yet he was not provided adequate medication or psychiatric care while housed at the Vista Detention Facility.
Due to the alleged lack of care, Dean “decompensated and became erratic and unpredictable,” according to the lawsuit, which states that deputies placed him in solitary confinement after he began “screaming, crying and acting bizarrely.”
Medical and mental health providers observed that Dean was engaging in bizarre behavior and required assistance for basic self-care and social skills, the lawsuit states. Other inmates housed nearby reported that he “screamed, cried and begged for help and medical assistance” and was pushing the cell’s intercom button daily for help, yet was ignored.
Dean, 43, allegedly told deputies he was sick and told inmates he was urinating on himself to stay warm.
He also smeared feces on himself to gain deputies’ attention, among other fruitless attempts, but the lawsuit alleges Dean was ignored and intentionally left in the contaminated cell for more than two weeks.
Dean was found dead around 3 a.m. July 13, just under a month after he was booked into jail.
The lawsuit alleges county officials were aware that inmates with serious mental health illnesses were at risk of seriously declining while in solitary confinement, as multiple other inmates with similar mental health issues were placed in solitary confinement and died in San Diego County jails.
One psychiatrist and correctional health expert who toured San Diego County’s administrative separation units — where inmates are placed in solitary confinement — wrote in one subheading of a report, “Conditions in San Diego County Jail’s Administrative Separation Units Constitute Some of the Harshest, Most Restrictive Forms of Solitary Confinement I Have Ever Witnessed in a Jail System,” the lawsuit alleges.
That doctor’s report included a review of Dean’s case, which stated Dean “should have received additional care, and certainly should have been removed from the Administrative Separation unit. Mr. Dean’s death represents an egregious case of neglect.”
–City News Service
