Hernandez

ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

In the midst of this litigation over the conditions of confinement at the Monterey County Jail, the parties did something different. They did something commendable. They cooperated.

Their cooperation took the form of an agreement to retain four neutral experts. 1 The experts were asked to evaluate whether jail inmates are adequately protected from injury and violence, and whether the jail’s system of medical care is adequate. 2 The experts identified a variety of deficiencies and hazards, including: an inadequate tuberculosis screening program; inadequate policies and practices for continuing prescription medication for newly-booked inmates; substandard policies and practices for identifying and treating newly-booked inmates for drug and alcohol withdrawal; administrative segregation unit conditions that put inmates at unacceptable risk of suicide and self-harm; exclusion of inmates from exercise, religious, rehabilitative and educational programs based on physical disability and failure to provide inmates with any sign-language interpreters.

*934 The cooperation ended, however, when it came to implementing the experts’…