More than four years since the beating death of a mentally ill inmate spurred widespread reforms, the Santa Clara County Sheriffâs Office is moving forward to get a new, long-awaited civilian oversight body.
The countyâs Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to put the Los Angeles-based OIR Group in charge of the new Office of Corrections and Law Enforcement Monitoring, which will have the power to audit sheriffâs operations, inmate complaints and internal investigations.
âThe beating death in our jail highlighted the need for monitoring on both the correctional side and the patrol side of operations,â board President Joe Simitian said in a written statement.
He acknowledged that establishing the new office âtook longer than I hoped.â
âMeaningful civilian monitoring is an essential component of the reform effort that has been under wayâ Simitian said. âWeâre finally ready to deliver on the promise of civilian oversight.â
The new civilian oversight office will open pending a final agreement between the county and OIR Group, which applied for the role.
Michael Tyree died Aug. 27, 2015, shortly after three deputies entered his cell. The 31-year-old was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and addiction and was being held at the Main Jail in San Jose awaiting transfer to a treatment facility.
A sheriffâs investigation found that inmates in the same housing unit reported hearing Tyree scream for several minutes and also heard, “sounds of thumping, wall banging and what sounded like blows on a person’s body.”
The medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Tyreeâs body found that he died from blunt force trauma that caused his spleen to rupture.
The three deputies last seen with Tyree were arrested just days after his murder.
A jury convicted each of them of second degree murder, and they were sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison.
The brutal beating death also prompted county officials to establish a temporary commission to investigate and improve conditions for inmates.
Investigators for the commission surveyed nearly a thousand inmates and over 30 jail staff and reported widespread abuse by officers, lax oversight and a disciplinary system that failed to punish serious misconduct.
Establishing independent oversight of the Sheriffâs Office was one of more than 100 policy recommendations the commission made the year after Tyreeâs death.
âIt is my hope that the work of the OIR will be transparent, with regular and detailed reports to the Board of Supervisors and to the general public,â retired Santa Clara County Judge LaDoris Cordell, who chaired the commission, said in an emailed response.
She wrote that the new civilian oversight office should include people of color and be based in Santa Clara County.
âLong-distance monitoring will not work,â Cordell wrote.
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