| CRIMINAL JUSTICE
By Royal Calkins
Monterey County officials have paid $1 million to the family of Carlos Chávez, the inmate who seemingly suffocated himself by stuffing toilet paper down his throat during 2022’s rash of deaths in the county jail.
A wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Chávez’s wife and six children was settled out of court in May, eliminating the need for a trial that would have illuminated the circumstances surrounding his death. The jail’s healthcare provider, Wellpath, also agreed to settle out of court for an additional, undisclosed amount. Unlike the county, which is required to disclose its portion of settlements, the private company can keep its part confidential. A county official involved in the settlement process would say only that Wellpath’s share was larger than the county’s. Wellpath didn’t respond to a phone call seeking comment.
A court-appointed federal monitor who regularly examines health care in the jail reported that the care provided to Chávez both by the county and Wellpath was substandard. Details weren’t readily available.
A county official involved in the settlement process would say only that Wellpath’s share was larger than the county’s.
Anabel Chávez argued that her husband, 39, a longtime Watsonville resident, had surrendered to authorities to answer a relatively minor probation violation complaint and had no motive to kill himself. She has publicly contended that he was murdered shortly after being booked, either by long-ago gang rivals or rogue sheriff’s deputies. Before and after hiring a lawyer, she conducted her own investigation and arranged for a second autopsy. She told Voices that she saw bruising on his throat that suggested he had been strangled. She noted that correctional officials have found suicide by tissue to be highly unusual. County officials brushed her assertions aside.
Carlos Chávez reportedly had tried to hang himself and was placed in an observation cell when he began stuffing his throat and mouth with toilet paper. Court papers indicate that correctional officers were supposed to check on him every 15 minutes but missed at least seven of those checks before discovering that he had died. The functionality of cameras in the jail would have been an issue at trial.
Enlarge
Chávez’s death occurred near the end of the administration of Sheriff Steve Bernal, who chose not to seek re-election following a series of controversies. During much of his tenure, the jail was seriously understaffed, as was Wellpath’s medical team at the jail. In order to meet federal jail staffing requirements, Bernal’s command staff arranged at times for deputies assigned to special events to falsely claim that their hours had been spent in the jail.
Bernal’s successor, Tina Nieto, promised to be “laser focused” on adding staff and improving inmate safety — but she also encountered an outbreak of jail deaths, with six just in the first half of her first year, 2023.
Since then, death cases have slowed to a trickle, perhaps because additional staff has been assigned to the jail. That, meanwhile, opened Nieto to criticism within her department for not somehow finding the money to fully staff the investigations squad and specialty units like the SWAT team.
Most government agencies apparently have decided that the status quo, even with all the litigation and other complications, is more cost efficient than spending more taxpayer dollars on improved care.
Wellpath is the nation’s largest medical provider within the prison industry. It contracts with most of the county jails in California. The company has developed a rather dark reputation nationally, but so have most of its competitors. A rising rate of jail suicides nationally and increasingly expensive litigation stemming from routinely inadequate care at U.S. jails and prisons alike have generated journalistic exposés and formal federal monitoring of numerous institutions nationwide, including the Monterey County Jail. The notoriously high cost of medical care in this country prevents most county and state governments from making the costly commitment to improve inmate care at the expense of filling potholes. Most government agencies apparently have decided that the status quo, even with all the litigation and other complications, is more cost efficient than spending more taxpayer dollars on improved care.
For the past eight years, the county jail has been under special federal monitoring as the result of litigation by past prisoners who alleged that inmates were suffering from long treatment delays, flawed diagnoses and numerous cases of sick or injured inmates receiving no care at all. The federal courts get involved because inmates, unlike the rest of the U.S. population, are deemed to have a constitutional right to adequate care because of their incarceration.
In Monterey County’s case, Wellpath has repeatedly been found to be providing inadequate care and is facing up to $2 million in fines in August for violating as many as 43 provisions of its annual $15 million county contract in recent years.
Have something to say about this story? Send us a letter or leave a comment below.
SUPPORT NONPROFIT JOURNALISM 
GET OUR FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
