One day in March, a blind man was booked into the San Bernardino County jail.
A parole violator, he could see only four inches in front of his face. At the West Valley Detention Center, according to his account, deputies assigned him the upper bunk in a cell at the top of a tall staircase. "The deputy laughed at me and told me I could see just fine," he recounted. Several days later, he missed a step and, flailing for a handrail, tumbled down the steel staircase. When he returned from the hospital in a wheelchair, deputies confiscated it.
The blind prisoner's account, dictated to an attorney, is one of dozens of complaints cited in a federal lawsuit alleging that the state violated the rights of disabled prisoners by not ensuring they would receive adequate care in county jails. The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department did not respond to requests for comment...
LINK - CaliforniaWatch.org