Civil Rights Clinic Students Give Presentation on Consent Decree Litigation

  • by Kelley Weiss

A panel of UC Davis Law Civil Rights Clinic students, and their supervising attorney Carter White, gave a presentation on the Yuba County Jail Consent Decree litigation to the Federal Defenders of Sacramento and Criminal Justice Act Panel attorneys on March 15, 2023.

Yuba County recently entered into an agreement with the U.S. Marshal to house federal pretrial detainees in the Yuba County Jail. Like many county jails in California, the Yuba County Jail has been the subject of a federal consent decree for many years. The court amended the consent decree in 2019, and that order is scheduled to expire this year. The parties have agreed to extend some of the provisions, including those covering mental health care and suicide prevention. The Civil Rights Clinic, along with co-counsel, have monitored the jail’s compliance with the consent decree for the past nine years. Clinic students explained their work and what the newly-amended consent decree provides and its impact on federal prisoners housed at the jail.

Class of 2023 students Karen Chen, Maeve Estrada, Sue Youn Kim, Neha Malik, and Jason Wong gave the presentation. Scores of other students have worked on the case over the past nine years. The case is Hedrick v. Yuba County, No. 2:76-cv-00162-EFB (E.D. Cal.).