O.C. sheriff takes aim at ACLU over jails report and swats away rumors over her decision to retire

Under intense scrutiny over her handling of Orange County’s jails, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens railed Wednesday against a scathing report on jail conditions released this week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, saying the report was rife with inaccuracies and “purposely distorted” facts.

She also insisted that her announcement Tuesday that she will not seek reelection in 2018 — which came within hours of the ACLU report’s release and advocates’ calls for her to resign — had nothing to do with the report or those demands.

“I’m not going to call it an investigation,” Hutchens said about the ACLU’s 104-page report, which was the result of what the group described as a two-year investigation, “because it doesn’t rise to that level in my mind.”

Hutchens was appointed in 2008 after former Sheriff Michael S. Carona was indicted on federal public corruption charges. She was widely seen as a reformer of a troubled agency, and her first years were marked by widespread popularity.

That reputation has been tainted lately by an ongoing scandal involving the use of jailhouse informants, and a daring escape last year by three inmates at the county Central Men’s Jail that the deputies union blamed on staffing shortages, among other alleged missteps.

The ACLU report was the latest set of allegations to rock the county’s jail system. The report painted the jails as plagued by violence and unsanitary conditions, with deputies regularly assaulting inmates for no lawful reason and instigating fights among them. The report also alleged that people slept on floors in holding cells in the booking area and that the cells were smeared with human waste.

Hutchens disputed some of the points in the report at a news conference Wednesday and said her office was not contacted for the other side of the story. Of the 108 recommendations in the report, all but one — an independent civilian oversight body — have been implemented, she said.

She sought to minimize the ACLU report’s findings by pointing out that there were 350,000 bookings over the course of time considered by the ACLU, and that the surveys of former inmates represented only a tiny fraction of the people who cycle through. She also disputed allegations of overcrowding, saying that the jails have an 18% vacancy rate, with one facility at 42%.

The 48 jail deaths cited in the report were an even smaller fraction of the number of people booked, Hutchens said, and many people arrive with preexisting health conditions.

Contrary to the ACLU report, she contended, inmates are given adequate mental health care, and pregnant women and transgender people have access to special medical services.

Responding to a question about numerous inmates surveyed reporting similar experiences — such as being forced to eat meals in only two or three minutes — Hutchens said incredulously, “I’d be interested in why they did not come forward while they were in custody.”

She added, “That makes me suspect.”

The sheriff also denied rumors that she was stepping down because of health concerns. A breast cancer survivor, Hutchens said the disease has not returned.

“I don’t have an illness,” she said. “I’m fine.”

More time with family, she said, was among the reasons motivating her decision. Regarding her legacy, she hopes she “empowered the people who work for me” to make their own decisions.

adam.elmahrek@latimes.com

Twitter: @AdamElmahrek