SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Decarcerate Sacramento issued a press release today alleging Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper illegally shut down a mutual aid program outside the downtown Main Jail.
The press release stated that Sheriff Cooper and several deputies “accosted local residents and volunteers offering mutual aid,” and threatened to arrest them. According to the release, the mutual aid program, operated by Decarcerate Sacramento and the Anti Police-Terror Project, has long provided basic resources and support for people newly released from jail and their families.
The release emphasized this is the first time the sheriff’s office has “forced out” Decarcerate Sacramento and APTP members from their mutual aid work. It cited the ongoing class-action lawsuit Mays v. Sacramento County, in which incarcerated plaintiffs alleged understaffing, prolonged isolation, inadequate care, and disability discrimination inside county jails.
In 2019, the parties reached a consent decree settlement requiring a “Remedial Plan” to expand mental health programs and services, provide constitutionally adequate medical care, improve suicide-prevention measures, and ensure accommodations for incarcerated people with disabilities and mental health needs. However, periodic reviews allege the jail has not fully complied with the plan.
As the dispute continues, The New York Times reported that, in 2024, an unhoused man jailed without a proper medical examination died from an overdose. His family alleged neglect and later reached a $3.5 million settlement with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office, its health department, and the Sacramento Police Department.
Decarcerate Sacramento argued that today’s incident marks the first time since the lawsuit began that mutual aid was directly blocked, linking it to broader allegations of “inhumane conditions and inadequate care” inside the Main Jail.
The release also cited the ACLU’s Know Your Rights guide for free speech, protests and demonstrations in California, which states that prohibiting individuals from leafleting or tabling on public sidewalks, unless they obstruct the right-of-way, constitutes a violation of First Amendment rights.
The organizations said that when mutual aid workers asked Sheriff Cooper which ordinances they had violated, the sheriff and deputies refused to cite any laws while “threatening to arrest the workers if they refused to leave.”
Decarcerate Sacramento alleged that Cooper and county leaders have failed to meet consent decree requirements. They pointed to a letter from court-appointed experts that concluded the 2024 overdose death was a “symptom of a larger and long-standing cultural problem with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office.”
Despite the sheriff’s attempts to halt their work, Decarcerate Sacramento and the Anti Police-Terror Project said they plan to continue their monthly Jail Support program.
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