A crisis of deaths by suicide continues to plague the Monterey County Jail.

Juan Carlos Chavez was trying to get his life in order when on Monday, April 18, he turned himself in for what his family says was an outstanding traffic warrant to the Watsonville Police Department. Chavez had open warrants in Monterey County, and sheriff’s deputies transferred him to the Monterey County Jail in Salinas. Two days later, Chavez was dead.

The Sheriff’s Office was expected to release a statement with some additional details about Chavez’s case on May 11, after the Weekly went to print. For now, they confirm that he was alone in a cell and believe he died from suicide. (Chavez’s family disputes that official account and is calling for an investigation into his death.)

This has come to be a tragically common story at the Monterey County Jail. It’s a heartbreaking pattern that reflects an underlying, systemwide crisis: According to a 2006 report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than half of inmates are suffering from a mental health problem. The bureau estimated 45 percent of federal prisoners, 56 percent of state prisoners, and the highest proportion of local jail inmates – 64 percent – were affected. While that report is now outdated, Monterey County jail officials estimate the numbers have only risen since then.

This growing national reckoning that jails and prisons have become de facto mental health treatment centers is not coming fast enough to save lives. But in Monterey County, change was supposed to come years ago.

In 2013, inmates filed a class action lawsuit against the jail and its contracted medical provider, now called Wellpath. (Wellpath operates in over 350 local jails and more than 135 federal and state prisons in the U.S.) Under the terms of a 2015 settlement agreement in the class action case, the jail and Wellpath are required to provide improved medical, dental and mental health care to inmates. Covid outbreaks drew additional scrutiny from court-appointed monitors who visit the jail to determine compliance. In a dark acknowledgment of reality – that not every crisis can be prevented – the settlement calls for “substantial compliance,” not 100-percent. But what counts as substantial?

“The Sheriff’s Office has made significant efforts in improving safety and healthcare at the jail,” says Monterey County Public Defender Susan Chapman. “However, the unfortunate recent events have shown us there is still much that needs to be done. The Monterey County Public Defender is committed to ensure that those housed in our jail are safe and treated with dignity.”

There is indignity, and there is also a monetary cost to the county and to Wellpath. On March 11, Ana Regalado Patino sued the county and Wellpath in federal court for wrongful death and other claims. Her son, Carlos Patino Regalado, was in and out of jail and struggling with mental health issues. He was 22 when he was arrested on Feb. 16, 2021. He was placed on and off suicide watch and was alone in cell G104 when he was found hanging from an air flow grate. He was transported to the hospital, where he died six days later.

“He had a very close relationship with his mother,” says Regalado’s attorney Jamie Goldstein. “When he was out of prison, he always helped her and was always there for her. He suffered from mental illness and it was worse when he was [in jail].”

Goldstein’s firm also represented the family of Lara Gillis, who died of sepsis after being isolated in the jail in 2015; they settled for $825,000. The family of Joshua Claypole, who hanged himself in the jail in 2013, settled for $1.1 million. A wrongful death case filed by family members of Sergio Gonzalez, who died from Covid in the jail in September, is pending. These are just a small sample of the very real suffering.

Sheriff’s Capt. Joe Moses – who is also a candidate for sheriff – is responsible for overseeing the jail. Due to pending litigation he’s unable to speak in detail about any of these cases, but overall says he thinks the jail’s policies have improved and are effective. “We do everything we possibly can to avoid this,” he says. “Suicide is a huge tragedy – it doesn’t just affect the individual, it affects the family, our staff and other inmates. We continue to do what we can, whatever is in our power, to avoid it.”

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com