Their complaint, however, describes a series of staged fights that a group of deputies planned and carried out, forcing inmates to brawl with the promise of hamburger rewards and beatings as punishments if they refused to fight.
"I don’t want to speculate as to the reasons, but it certainly would seem like a rather low settlement, given the gravity of what happened," said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who revealed inmates' claims of abuse last year.
Former Deputy Scott Neu and current Deputies Clifford Chiba and Eugene Jones face separate criminal charges from the forced fight allegations. All three are due back in court next month.
Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said that although Chiba and Jones are still employed, they have "non-public, non-prisoner-contact" assignments. Deputy Evan Staehely was named by Adachi and was a defendant in the civil suit, but he was never criminally charged. Hirst said he is "on full duty."
Neu "separated from the department" as of July 25 of last year, Hirst said, three months after former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi served him with a pink slip.
The jail fight allegations ended a career for Neu that included previous lawsuits alleging sexual assault and excessive force. He was also the subject of 11 internal affairs investigations into alleged excessive force, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
"When you’re locked up behind bars and somebody is abusing you, there’s very little you can do," Adachi said. "These cases are hard to prove because it’s the word of the jailer versus you."
The deputies union did not respond to requests for comment, but its president previously told KQED that inmates often fabricate complaints against jail guards.
Neu's attorney, Harry Stern, told the San Francisco Chronicle last year that a $97,500 payment ending a lawsuit stemming from inmates' sexual assault allegations against Neu was "settled for a nuisance value, pennies on the dollar."
Adachi said that lawsuit should have ended Neu's career.
"From what I saw, the evidence was pretty strong, and yet he was allowed to continue on the job," he said. "We have to look at the discipline that’s meted out by the Sheriff’s Department and ask why this kind of misconduct is continuing."
Hirst said the forced fight allegations didn't lead to any changes in Sheriff's Department policy.
"There is reinforcing what is permissible and what is not permissible, but the problem was not the policy," she said.
She said the department is asking the city to fund body cameras for at least some deputies.
"Is this all because of one incident? I don’t think it’s fair to say that," Hirst said. "But I think it would be a very useful tool in preventing occurrences like this."
This post originally reported that San Francisco supervisors would consider the settlement on Tuesday, June 28, which was incorrect. Approval of the settlement was assigned to a board committee on June 28.
