Former Jury Foreman: County Downplayed Las Colinas Prison Findings

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published August 1, 2007 at 1:15 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego County Supervisors responded to seven civil grand jury reports this week, but not in public. The items went by virtually unnoticed on their consent agenda. KPBS reporter Alison St John has m

San Diego County Supervisors responded to seven civil grand jury reports this week, but not in public. The items went by virtually unnoticed on their consent agenda. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The 19-member civil grand jury worked full time last year to draw attention to problems not being addressed by San Diego public agencies. Almost half of their reports relate to county responsibilities, like deteriorating jails for women and youth and insufficient monitoring of old peoples' homecare.

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The county responded to the reports within the legal time limit. But former grand jury foreman David Higgins says with no public discussion, the supervisors are downplaying the findings.

Higgins : The opportunity I think they missed yesterday .. discussing the reasons they support or do not support specific recommendations, and they could have done that in a public form and that would have been a huge contribution to transparency in government.

The county disagreed with one grand jury finding that awful conditions at Las Colinas Women's jail -- compared with conditions in men's jails -- is evidence of gender bias. But supervisors did say replacing Las Colinas jail is their number one renovation priority.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.