California Sheriff’s Department errors led to slaying of inmate, grand jury says

A summary by the Riverside County civil grand jury says errors by the Sheriff s Department s inmate screeners and flaws in the booking process resulted in a felon with a violent past mistakenly being placed with low-risk inmates in a vocational activity at the Banning jail where prosecutors say the man stabbed another inmate to death in September The review made constituents on May exposed critical deficiencies and recommends strategies to improve the accuracy of inmate identifications Related Articles Oakland man who killed jail cellmate is not guilty by reason of insanity Wonderful man Hayward man who died in police custody was combat veteran father of Man died in East Bay police custody after EMT injected controversial sedative Inmate dies at Main Jail in San Jose Cellmate charged with murder in inmate s death at East Bay Jail The -page statement comes at a time when the state Attorney General s Office is analyzing the Sheriff s Department over its inmate deaths and its uses of force Additionally an scrutiny by The New York Times and Desert Sun ascertained that institutional lapses contributed to several of those deaths particularly suicides In the Banning matter the record says a man booked into Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside gave jailers an alias and a false date of birth A records search returned details on a man linked to the false information who had a record of minor crimes The document read by jailers is called a Livescan document which comes from Cal ID which provides records on inmates and provides a person s true name along with any aliases based on fingerprints The jailers did not pick up on the man s true name the grand jury summary says As a end he was rated as only a medium threat for violence in jail and he was assigned to the vocational scheme at Larry D Smith Correctional Facility in Banning where he worked in the print shop The jail also provides training in culinary arts construction welding landscaping and being a barista But in reality the grand jury account says the man had a -year record of violent crimes and had served a total of years in prison He faced current charges of brandishing a weapon making criminal threats and possession of illegal drug paraphernalia which would have made him ineligible to participate in the vocational operation had his true name been discovered The overview does not identify the person by name But it references a Sept homicide at the jail On that date according to a Sheriff s Department news release issued at the time Scott Shelby Lowder stabbed to death -year-old Steve Gonzalez of Moreno Valley Lowder whose Superior Court records list about a dozen aliases has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July If classification staff had closely scrutinized the subject inmate s Livescan review they should have promptly discovered there were two different criminal identification numbers and several aliases used by the arrestee the summary says Importantly it would have revealed his true identity The classification staff knew or should have known that the arrestee had a considerable and violent criminal history The Sheriff s Department did not respond to a request by the Southern California News Group for comment on Thursday In an interview with SCNG in December Sheriff Chad Bianco speaking generally about jail deaths declared We do an industry-leading fantastic job in our corrections division and are not responsible for any of these deaths But the grand jury disagreed writing that Gonzalez s death could have been prevented if the screeners had been more diligent The summary says that the Sheriff s Department admitted its errors and has made changes But jail staff the summary says recounted investigators that no changes were made and that their procedures were adequate as long as they were followed The description also says that aspects of the booking system are years old The county has approved money for upgrades and the Sheriff s Department is talking with vendors the record says A biometric system that identifies inmates through fingerprints wasn t working when grand jurors visited the jail and staff stated it frequently breaks down The Sheriff s Department does not track the number or reasons for misclassified inmates the summary adds The document makes several recommendations including Providing clear instructions for validating IDs through the Livescan reports Implementing mandatory training and recertification for those verifying eligibility for the vocational training Repairing and requiring the use of the biometric system Creating a database to track booking and classification errors to help learn the root causes of the mistakes The law requires the Sheriff s Department to submit a response to the grand jury by Aug