A weekend brawl involving multiple inmates at a San Francisco jail has concerning implications for deputies and sheriff’s department staff.
A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told The Standard that the fight happened Sunday at County Jail No. 3 on Moreland Drive in San Bruno.
The spokesperson said jail medical services were notified but added that the department could not identify the inmates or Sheriff’s Office personnel involved until the investigation is completed.
“The Sheriffs Office can not maintain and implement all day out of cell walk time at its current staffing levels,” Ken Lomba, president of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, said in a statement. “The city needs to focus on increasing incentives to attract new deputy sheriff hires.”
In an email shared with The Standard, Lomba sought to push back against a directive permitting an increase in walk times for jails’ general populations. His argument: that a staggered approach to unlock times based on tier levels, along with preventing outdoor time during staff meal breaks, would better allow deputies on duty to handle “a notable increase in the prevalence of violent, sophisticated, and organized criminal elements.”
Lomba alluded to an earlier brawl in a jail pod, “allegedly triggered by a dispute over access to free telephone usage,” that left a deputy injured and several inmates hospitalized, as well as affecting deputy staffing levels.
“It is imperative that any modifications or directives with the potential to compromise safety be thoroughly reviewed by the safety committee before implementation,” Lomba said in part. “We are confident that addressing these concerns within the safety committee could have prevented the recent incidents.”
According to data provided Monday by the Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, jail counts rose last Thursday from 1,071 inmates to 1,081 a day later. On Monday, the count was 1,101 inmates.
In addition, sources told The Standard that the jail’s Seventh Street release and intake center was over capacity, with inmates briefly sleeping on its floor, and officials are weighing whether to reopen a closed section of the San Bruno jail on an emergency basis to respond to crowded conditions.