The state’s federally recognized watchdog for disabled people’s rights said Tuesday it plans to file a federal lawsuit against Clark County for not releasing video connected to deaths and alleged mistreatment at the county jail.
The group Disability Rights Washington has been investigating deaths at the Clark County Jail along with allegations of abuse and neglect, said David Carlson, Disability Rights Washington’s director of legal advocacy.
The county has agreed to share written records responding to the organization’s requests but would only share video records on the condition Disability Rights Washington would not share them with others, Carlson said Tuesday. The county has said unrestricted release of the videos could threaten the safety of custody officers and inmates.
“The jail videos are different from other records, and unrestricted release of those records exposes guards and inmates to unacceptable risks,” Chris Horne, who as the county’s chief civil deputy prosecutor represents the county in civil litigation, wrote in response to the group’s request.
Watchdog group
Disability Rights Washington is one of the councils established by the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, first passed by Congress in 1975, and it works on behalf of people with disabilities and mental illnesses. The law is meant to help ensure people with disabilities receive appropriate services and funds groups that serve as advocates and watchdogs on their behalf.
The agency requested records on inmate deaths from March 2015 through this year, information on attempted suicides and jail policies and procedures regarding suicide precautions, assessment and screening. An inmate at the jail killed himself April 22, the second suicide there this year. Another inmate hanged himself in April 2015. According to The Columbian’s archives, 13 inmates killed themselves from 2007 to 2012, four of those in 2012.
Carlson said organizations like his are allowed access to unredacted government records connected to the death or alleged neglect or abuse of someone with disabilities, within 24 hours to a few days, depending on the circumstance. Those requests are allowed under different law than the state Public Records Act or federal Freedom of Information Act.
He said restricting the video records with such conditions runs counter to federal law and the entire purpose of the agency, which is what prompted the lawsuit.
County responds
Horne said in a Tuesday email to Disability Rights Washington that there are competing interests the county has to balance when it comes to releasing records.
“The jail videos are different from other records, and unrestricted release of those records exposes guards and inmates to unacceptable risks,” he wrote.
Horne added jail staff have offered to show the videos to Disability Rights Washington while retaining actual custody of the material.
“Given the varied options Clark County has provided to accommodate your need to conduct an investigation, it is the position of this office that the county has met its obligation to provide access under the authorities you have discussed and that our reasonable conditions are necessary to balance county obligations to protect the inmates and guards,” Horne wrote.
Horne did not return calls from The Columbian on Tuesday.
Carlson said the county has offered no legal explanation for not sharing all the records.
“That’s really what we wanted today, either give us the records or give us your legal argument,” he said.
Reasons questioned
Carlson said the county cited concerns with jail safety and the possibility someone could find weak points in its security using the video, but he said that argument doesn’t make sense. Thousands of inmates go through the jail and likely remember what they saw, and his agency has been inside the jail as recently as March as part of its work, recording video all the while.
Carlson said the county also said people might find it troubling to see deaths as recorded on video.
“That may be true, but that’s not a legal reason for not providing,” he said. “That’s part of what we’re supposed to uncover, why people are dying.”
Along with the suit from Disability Rights Washington, the county faces another suit in state court over video records of a jail death.
The family of a man who died after a scuffle with guards at the Clark County Jail sued the county in early April, saying the county violated the state’s public records laws by refusing to share video of the struggle.
Mycheal J. Lynch died following a struggle with deputies in March last year, and his family is claiming the county has withheld video used to determine jail staff had acted lawfully.
