O.C. Ordered to Pay to Make Jails Accessible for Disabled Prisoners

While it will cost Orange County a significant amount of money to make its jails more accessible for the disabled as a federal judge
has ordered, authorities said this week they are relieved to finally have a plan in place to follow.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins issued her final order late Tuesday
afternoon in the lawsuit filed in October 2001. The order spells out how Orange County must make its jails comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"This means disabled inmates won't have to crawl to get into a shower,'' said Radhika Sainath, one of the attorneys involved in the lawsuit.

The first plaintiff was Fred Pierce, but he was later removed from the
lawsuit and was replaced by Timothy Conn, a quadriplegic detainee who had suffered multiple injuries because of the jail's access issues, according to the plaintiff's attorneys. Conn was in an Orange County jail for a couple of months in 2009 on a misdemeanor drug possession case, Sainath said.

"The barriers that exist throughout the five jails in the system were
so bad our lead plaintiff had to be physically lifted into the shower in his wheelchair by three other inmates,'' Sainath said.

Collins' ruling not only means ramps and other means of improved access, but a "grievance system'' for inmates and a monitor who will make certain the county complies with federal laws for the disabled, Sainath said.

The lawsuit's legal history included two bench trials and an appeal to
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the plaintiffs won in 2008, attorney Dan Stormer said. What made the case so difficult was the lack of precedent regarding how the Americans with Disabilities Act applied to jails, Stormer said.

"The significance of this is how wide-ranging it is and because it includes a monitor,'' Stormer said.

The order even addresses where disabled inmates can conduct religious observances, Sainath said, adding until now they were relegated to the "dankest, dingiest corners of the jail'' for religious worship.

Orange County sheriff's Capt. Dave Nighswonger said it was a relief to
finally get a road map to the upgrades for the disabled access.

"It's good for us right now because we're out of the planning stage and
we know what the ruling is,'' Nighswonger said. "We don't have to speculate now.''

Nighswonger did not know how much it would cost the county to make the changes. However, the ruling comes at a tough time for county officials, who said this week they will have to make deep cuts in public safety because they expect to receive $48 million less from the state during the fiscal year beginning Friday.

—City News Service