Pain, death and secrets at the Monterey County Jail A special series by Royal Calkins

SPECIAL SERIES | 

In 2015, a federal court settlement required Monterey County to improve all forms of medical care in its jail. The monitoring of the Monterey County Jail in Salinas came from a sweeping class-action suit filed by the ACLU and the law firm Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld, whose previous litigation led to a US Supreme Court ruling and an historic depopulation of California’s prisons.

Investigative reporter Royal Calkins has been uncovering critical information for Voices about the operations, scandals and behavior of employees at the county Sheriff’s Office since early 2020 — as well as the county jail, whose death rate is consistently double the national average.

Here are Calkins’ stories on this ongoing crisis.