The Board of Supervisors is expected to review the report next month.
A new report condoning the use of tear gas and pepper spray in Santa Clara County jails is raising concerns among criminal justice reform advocates who argue the county’s correctional officers shouldn’t be using chemical agents on mentally ill inmates.
The report reviewed 17 cases in which tear gas or pepper spray were used. In all but three of them, deputies were responding to requests from medical or mental health personnel to help remove a non-compliant inmate from their cell. That included four cases to administer court-ordered medication, three to move the inmate to the acute psychiatric unit and another three to impose suicide precautions.
In an Aug. 29 letter to supervisors, criminal justice reform advocates with the nonprofit Silicon Valley DeBug expressed concerns about the use of chemical agents, as well as the incarceration of individuals with severe mental illnesses. The county is undergoing a multi-year process to assess alternatives to incarceration.
The first incident involved an inmate in a mental health unit who brandished a piece of metal and threatened to swallow it. Deputies and mental health personnel unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the individual. During another check, a deputy saw a laceration on the inmate’s arm and the inmate told the deputy he had swallowed the metal. He refused to be handcuffed so after a warning they used tear gas.
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