As cold weather sweeps Sacramento, inmates complain about ‘frigid conditions’ in jail

With winter storms continuing to sweep through the Sacramento region, advocates say inmates in the county’s jails are now living in “frigid conditions” with only short-sleeve T-shirts and a lack of warm clothing.

In a letter the Prison Law Office sent to Sacramento County Feb. 6, law office staff attorney Patrick Booth complained about the type and amount of clothing provided to inmates by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.

“First, people in the jails are issued only one pair of clothes, which does not include any long-sleeve T-shirt, jacket, sweatshirt, or thermal clothing,” Booth wrote. “People are provided only one short-sleeve T-shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of socks, and one or two pairs of underwear.”

As a result, those incarcerated at the Main Jail downtown and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove report “being extremely cold,” Booth wrote, adding that inmates frequently refuse the chance to go outside for recreation because it is too cold in only short-sleeve shirts.

“People are forced to choose between extended periods of isolation in their cells or being outside on a cold, concrete recreation yard with no sweatshirt, no long-sleeve shirt, and no undershirt,” Booth wrote, adding that the law office may pursue the matter in federal court where conditions in the jails for some disabled inmates are governed by a consent decree.

Prison Law Office Legal Director Margot Mendelson said in an email to The Sacramento Bee that Sheriff Jim Cooper “categorically denied the request to provide sweatshirts or other weather-appropriate clothing to people in the jails.”

The Sheriff’s Office declined to comment Monday, but the county responded in a letter Friday, writing that the notion of issuing cold-weather gear to inmates “is unwarranted” and that temperatures in the downtown jail are monitored and measured at 67.5 degrees or above.

“SSO recognizes that on a few days per year, the temperature outside the facilities may not be warm enough for extended outdoor recreation,” said the letter from Deputy County Counsel Rick Heyer, which the law office provided to The Bee. “However, these are a relative few days in the year.

“In fact, the average daily temperature in Sacramento is 54 in January and above 60 for the rest of the year. ... It is the position of SSO that the relative few days per year of unseasonably cold weather do not necessitate the expenditure of providing every inmate in the custody of SSO cold weather garments as part of their standard clothing issue.

“SSO will continue to provide such clothing to inmates when it is medically necessary.”

Of course, most of California is not currently experiencing “average” weather conditions.

Mendelson noted during a telephone interview Monday that the temperature in Sacramento was in the upper 30s, a temperature that inhibits inmates from venturing outside for exercise in T-shirts.

“This is an extremely serious problem in the Sacramento County jails in which people spend days on end in their cells,” she said. “They say it’s not necessary. It’s shocking.

“I find this beyond the pale in terms of callousness and cruelty. It’s 38 degrees right now in Sacramento. Nobody goes outside right now in a T-shirt in Sacramento.”

In the county’s response, Heyer noted that most areas of the jails are temperature controlled and that temperature readings at the main jail indicated “that all floors have temperature of at least 67.5 (degrees),” with some units where the temperature was measured at 70 degrees.

The county also said the Sheriff’s Office has purchased additional T-shirts for inmates and that some temperature problems in the jails are caused by the inmates themselves.

“Several factors can cause temperature fluctuations in the facilities, but the most significant is when inmates intentionally block their cell’s vent,” the county wrote. “This can cause an imbalance of airflow and temperature.”

But Booth contends that there are widespread complaints about conditions in the jails, and that state prison inmates receive much more clothing than people held in Sacramento lockups.

“When we visited the Main Jail on January 12, 2023, we heard dozens of reports throughout the facility, from both staff and incarcerated people, that people forego their outdoor recreation time because they are too cold to go outside in only a T-shirt,” Booth wrote. “For example, Deputy Conley, who works on 3 West, told us that many people are too cold to spend any amount of time in the outdoor recreation space, and he is even cold when working inside the building.

“People in the jail who refuse outdoor time are not offered extra dayroom time to compensate for their lack of out-of-cell time. Instead, they merely receive less time out of their cell.”

While county jail inmates are given only one set of clothing and no long-sleeve shirts, other jurisdictions provide more clothing, she said.

“We do believe this is an outlier,” Mendelson said. “Yuba County right next door requires the issuance of sweatshirts, and the prison system requires the issuance of jackets,” she said.

Her letter says state prisoners are issued far more gear: three pairs of jeans, three outer-shirts, four undershirts, six pairs of socks, four pairs of shorts, and one jacket.”

Mendelson added that providing additional cold-weather clothing for the inmates could be paid for through the inmate welfare fund, which had a balance of more than $11 million last year and is funded through revenues from the inmate phone system and jail commissary.

The inmate welfare fund is designed for the sheriff to use it “for the benefit, education and welfare of the inmates,” according to the county.

A Bee review of the inmate fund last year found then-Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones had used millions from the fund to pay for salaries, fencing, parking lot improvements, cameras and other expenses.