At Wednesday morning’s “State of San Diego County Jails” press conference, Sheriff Kelly Martinez described Rock Mountain Detention Facility as “the linchpin” in the department’s jail system and offered reporters a tour of the Otay Mesa facility that afternoon.
I was the only reporter who showed up — understandable, at least when it comes to TV media, since no cameras were allowed on the tour.
Martinez called Rock Mountain a “linchpin” because it will house people now in other facilities that need to undergo much-needed improvements to safety, security and accessibility. Many of the planned changes are the result of a lawsuit filed by disability rights attorneys last year.
This weekend, 200 men are being transferred to Rock Mountain from the adjacent George Bailey Detention Facility, the county’s largest jail. More parts of the new facility, which will eventually accommodate 800, will open next year.
Though San Diego’s jail population remains historically low, George Bailey, with a larger sentenced population than other jails in the county, is always on the verge of being over capacity. It’s one of two local jails that include triple-bunk cells, a feature that deputies consider unsafe and that state regulators consider out of compliance with correctional facility standards.
Jeff McDonald and I wrote about Rock Mountain in late May, about how the project was long-delayed and overbudget. Since 2021, the sheriff’s department had earmarked more than $26 million to staff the former private prison, but the pandemic and a shortage of construction materials held up its completion.
Wednesday’s tour was led by Lt. Mike Binsfield, an amiable guy who walked me through cells, showering areas, the medical and dental clinics and special housing units to point out all the small changes that had to be made to bring the jail into compliance with state and federal standards.
We began with a stop at a table in the day room of one of the jail’s modules. On the table were some faucets, a metal vent and a sink. Those few apparently ordinary fixtures set a theme for the tour — representing much of why the jail is opening so much later than originally planned and $10 million over budget.
When disability rights attorneys toured the jail earlier this year, they reported that the jail was “unfinished and non-compliant with state and federal accessibility guidelines.”
But the problem with the vents and the faucets wasn’t with compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The problem was that they could be tie-off points for torn bedding or T-shirts that an incarcerated person could fashion into a noose.
So contractors had to replace all the vents in the jail because the holes, which were roughly the diameter of a pencil, were too big by state standards. And because making the vent holes smaller threw off the HVAC system, that then had to be reconfigured.
The new jail is full of things that had to be extended, shortened, caulked, removed or replaced to keep people from killing themselves. Even phone cords were swapped out. Those changes align with state standards that took effect in 2020, after suicide became the leading cause of death in U.S. jails.
Inside, Rock Mountain looks very much like a jail. It’s bleak and industrial. Heavy sliding metal doors with two narrow, vertical windows open to 68-square-foot, two-man cells that each contain a metal toilet, sink and a desk. Metal bunks attached to the wall are topped with inch-thick, tear-proof mattresses.
ADA-compliant cells are slightly larger to allow enough room for a wheelchair to make a full turn. Photos provided to the media show a wheelchair at different positions inside a cell.
Outside, too, Rock Mountain looks very much like a jail. It’s boxy, concrete and wrapped in barbed wire — much more barbed wire than George Bailey Detention Facility, the county’s maximum-security jail. Rolls of spiked metal loop through the gated visitors’ entrance.
Binsfield said there are plans to make the facility look more inviting.
“We definitely want it to look better,” he said. “We want a place people come to and just by the look of it know we’re going to take care of their family or loved one.”
Some aspects of the jail differentiate it from its counterparts. Instead of observation towers, deputy stations sit directly adjacent to day rooms and at eye level. According to Binsfield, this proximity reduces the risk of fights and allows more engagement between staff and incarcerated people.
Also different is the placement of nursing stations. Instead of having nurses work from a central clinic to which incarcerated people must be escorted, each unit will have its own nursing station. The department refers to it as a “primary care” model that will allow nurses to better get to know patients’ individual medical needs.
Binsfield assumes responsibility for Rock Mountain as the Sheriff’s Department grapples with ongoing litigation over the care of people in its custody, a scathing state audit and lawsuits over in-custody deaths and injuries that have cost taxpayers more than $60 million since 2018.
But Binsfield sees Rock Mountain as a chance for a new start.
“A better facility means the potential for better outcomes,” he said.
