Here There and Everywhere

King County officials released a 27-page letter from the Department of Justice’s Civil rights Division which says that the department has notified county officials of “life-threatening deficiencies in medical care” for some inmates at the jail and alleges that inmates were routinely pepper-sprayed by staff and subjected to “degrading” physical abuse, including hair pulling to force inmates to comply with guards’ orders.

The DOJ says the county has failed to adequately train its staff and has inadequate policies and procedures in place to protect inmates.

The Department of Adult and Juvenile Corrections’ internal investigations unit is also inadequate and routinely fails to follow up on reports of inmates complaints, the DOJ alleges.

Jail Director Reed Holtgeerts said the jail is addressing many of the issues but that the county disagrees that inmates rights are being violated.

“We strive at all times to provide safe, secure and humane conditions for the over 50,000 inmates for whom we are responsible each year,” according to a written statement released today by the county. “We disagree that the constitutional rights are being violated, but we are in complete agreement with DOJ that there is room for improvement in the areas they evaluated.”

Holtgeerts said the county has and will cooperate completely with the DOJ.

The DOJ says a lawsuit could be filed if the county fails to address the issues.

The DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into the King County Jail in November. Much of the investigation focused on jail health issues, including the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a highly contagious bacteria that can lead to severe infections and even death. At least one jail inmate has died from a MRSA infection and hundreds of others are diagnosed every year.