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The annual report of the Del Norte County Grand Jury described a jail that’s in disrepair with broken windows, mold and asbestos and is understaffed to the point that it’s out of compliance with state regulations.

It’s a description Sheriff Garrett Scott says is partially accurate, though some of the circumstances are out of his control. The Grand Jury’s 2023-24 report, released last week, comes as the county is pursuing funding to renovate the jail. As for keeping and retaining staff, that’s largely up to the Board of Supervisors and county administration, Scott told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Monday.

“I can provide a positive work environment. I can make sure [staff] have adequate equipment. I can try to have different avenues… of pushing morale up, but I can’t do anything about pay,” he said. “That is entirely a county issue and it’s an MOU issue, and it’s not even legal for me to get involved in contract negotiations.”

Scott submitted his response to the Grand Jury report to Del Norte County Superior Court Judge Darrin McElfresh on Thursday.

The Grand Jury toured the jail as part of its state mandate to annually inquire into the condition and management of public prisons within Del Norte County. Its members also reviewed the Board of State and Community Corrections Initial Inspection Report 2023-24 and the Sheriff-Coroner Execution of Corrective Action Plan and the Del Norte County Sheriff's Office Detention, both of which were issued in September, and Court Holding Facilities report issued in October.

During its tour of the jail, Grand Jury members spoke with several staff members.

According to its report, the Grand Jury stated that the jail is understaffed and is out of compliance with BSCC regulations. New-hires often stay only one year and then leave and because of staffing shortages, employees will sometimes work 12-hour shifts.

There is a single staff member in the control pod that does surveillance and answers requests from inmates. Inmates are able to see into the control pod in certain areas, and safety check intervals are out of compliance with BSCC standards, according to the Grand Jury’s report.

As for the building itself, the Grand Jury report described floor tiles and counters that are chipped and broken as well as mold and asbestos contamination, flooded toilets and broken windows in the visiting area.

Older inmate records are in an unsecured room, according to the report, and the phone in the attorney’s room is broken “often leading to unsecure communications.” Mirrors are missing in some of the housing blocks and maintenance response is slow if it comes at all. The report also found malfunctioning intercoms in two of the jail’s sobering cells.

Among its recommendations, the Grand Jury urged the county to investigate the problem with maintenance and to find a secure location for inmate records, offsite if necessary. The Grand Jury also urged the Del Norte County Sheriff's Office to establish a procedure for reporting when the attorney phone is out of order and to pursue USDA Rural Development Facilities Projects grants for jail improvements.

As for staffing, the Grand Jury found that newly-hired graduates often stay for a year and then leave.

“Offer incentives such as paying a percentage of student debt each year and beyond the first year of service,” the report stated.

In his response to the report, Scott agreed with much of the Grand Jury’s findings. This included acknowledging that the jail is short staffed. Out of a total of 19 positions between eight and 10 are filled, he told the Outpost.

As for the building itself, there is an older side, which was constructed in 1964, and a newer side which was built in 1984, Scott said. The county has refurbished two housing units in the old side of the jail — which the Grand Jury acknowledged and stated “now has no major issues.”

Scott said it took about a month and a half to two months of construction to refurbish one housing unit. It involved a lot of sandblasting, repainting and bathroom upgrades.

Scott said the jail can house up to 100 inmates. If it houses more than 100 inmates, the county would be obligated to provide 24-hour medical services, which would be costly. Scott said the jail is required to have medical staff on site 16 hours a day when its population is less than 100. That costs about $1.7 million annually, he said.

“We can barely afford $1.7 million for the mandated medical we currently have,” Scott told the Outpost.

In some cases, the sheriff said, his office and county administration have begun implementing the Grand Jury’s recommendations. This includes renovations to the jail, which is outlined in the county’s 2024-25 Strategic Plan.

On July 9, Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper told supervisors that the county had secured about $2 million in state Community Correction Partnership and Providing Access and Transforming Health Initiatives funding.

Added to the roughly $3 million in Congressionally Directed Spending dollars Del Norte received in 2022 courtesy of the late U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein, that $5 million will allow the county to start designing the renovation project, Hooper said.

The renovations are expected to cost about $9 million and, according to Scott’s response, a “large sum will be coming from the USDA Rural Communities Facilities grants.” Jail remodeling will likely be conducted in phases as funding sources allow, he stated.

In response to the Grand Jury’s findings that insufficient staffing results in 12-hour shifts and safety check failures, Scott agreed, but with a caveat. A May 14 BSCC inspection found Del Norte to be in compliance with safety checks in general, Scott stated. However, noncompliance was noted in the sobering cells, the primary concern being documentation.

“We have changed our standards of practice for the sobering cell area security checks and installed a digital monitoring system [called] RFID,” Scott stated, referring to a radio-frequency identification system. “The new digital system logs each safety check electronically. The RFID system ensures tracking and logging of each safety check throughout the entire facility, which should curtail documentation concerns in the future.”

As for 12-hour shifts, Scott said those shifts are part of the negotiated work day for corrections employees.

With an overall staff vacancy rate of 27.8 percent, according to County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez, recruitment and retention is high on the county’s list of priorities.

The same strategic plan that mentions jail renovations calls for a compensation and structure analysis to address staffing issues, Lopez told the Outpost last week. He said he expects to bring a contract related to that compensation study before the Board of Supervisors in August.

On Monday, Scott said the county’s wasting money by continuing to hire employees only to have them leave after roughly a year for higher paying jobs. Del Norte did negotiate a salary increase for sheriff’s office employees. He said it was about a 12-15 percent increase over a three year period, but he was not consulted in the negotiations.

“We’re in an area where it’s very hard to find people and my entire goal is to hire local people and retain them,” Scott said. “I can’t retain people if they can’t afford to buy a home, and I don’t mean a fancy home on the river, I mean any home.”

In addition to investigating the jail, the 2023-24 Del Norte County Grand Jury also investigated the Crescent City Harbor District, Alder Conservation Camp and the Del Norte County Probation Department.

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