As space got tight, Kern County moved inmates into closet-sized isolation

The Kern County Sheriff’s Office began putting far more people per week, on average, in safety cells in 2014 when its jails ran out of suicide watch cells. The practice continues, with some inmates spending more than a week in cells intended to hold people in crisis for a few hours.

Chart: Jason Pohl, Ryan Gabrielson Source: Kern County Sheriff's Office, ProPublica analysis Get the data