Two San Francisco County jails had been locked down over the weekend due to rising assaults of deputies and different employees by inmates on the amenities, officers stated.
Since late March, seven jail staffers have been injured in altercations with the incarcerated folks they had been employed to supervise, stated Tara Moriarty, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Workplace.
“A few of these assaults have resulted in critical accidents,” Moriarty stated in a information launch on Saturday. “The lockdown went into impact for the safety of all who work or reside in, or go to our jails.”
The lockdown, which is anticipated to finish subsequent week, means any visits and packages are canceled, protecting the greater than 1,100 incarcerated folks on the two Bay Space jails sequestered to their cells.
Affected jails embrace the county’s solely ladies’s facility and its San Bruno location.
“We’re actively investigating these incidents to determine their root causes and any potential correlation,” Moriarty stated. “It’s crucial that we establish and handle the components contributing to those assaults to stop future occurrences.”
The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs Assn., the union that represents affected staff, urged native leaders to deploy the California Nationwide Guard to make up for understaffing at county jails and to bolster safety.
“Current incidents, together with an alarming improve in prisoner fights, assaults on prisoners by different prisoners, and accidents to civilian workers and deputy sheriffs, spotlight the urgent want for added staffing and assets throughout the Sheriff’s Workplace,” union President Ken Lomba stated in a letter to officers together with Mayor London Breed and San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin.
Assaults on deputies rose from 121 in 2022 to 216 in 2023, based on Lomba.
Within the letter, Lomba factors to a latest research by Washington State College that confirmed excessive charges of psychological well being issues and fatigue amongst San Francisco Sheriff’s Workplace staff, an issue the union stated is exacerbated by time beyond regulation to fight understaffing.
Nationwide, a scarcity of correction officers has escalated considerations about high quality of life for each prisoners and staff because the incarcerated inhabitants at some amenities will increase whereas employees decreases.
Final yr, Gov. Gavin Newsom accredited greater than $1 billion in raises and advantages for California jail guards in response to comparable considerations.
In latest weeks, some San Francisco County jails have failed to fulfill staffing minimums, down as many as eight deputies for some shifts, based on the union.
Moriarty stated the affiliation’s request to name within the Nationwide Guard is “untimely” and pointless however stated the company shares considerations about issues of safety and can handle them internally.
“We perceive that the DSA additionally ties the latest incidents into low staffing ranges and has known as for rapid staffing,” she stated in an e-mail Sunday. “The Nationwide Guard just isn’t the reply to the staffing scarcity. The Sheriff continues to be dedicated to filling vacancies, recruiting, and hiring.”
