'Six deputies came up and forcibly removed me from my wheelchair, lifting me out of it, and put me in a vehicle to send me to George Bailey,' one man says.
Justice Department: Alameda County violates rights of mental health patients, inmates
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The mental health care of inmates at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin was the subject of a scathing Justice Department investigation that concluded on April 22.Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle
Alameda County is violating the U.S. Constitution by “unnecessarily institutionalizing” people with mental health needs and by subjecting them to “prolonged” solitary confinement in the county jail, the Justice Department concluded after a five-year investigation.
The Justice Department delivered its strongly worded findings to Alameda County and its Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, along with an attachment that summarized the ways in which inadequate mental health care traps Alameda County residents who need it in a cycle of jail and psychiatric institutionalization.