SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith pushed hard this spring to bring Tasers into the jails, insisting that a “less-lethal” option was needed to assure the safety of inmates and staff in the face of an increasingly violent population.

But left out of the discussion was the fact that correctional officers were equipped with Tasers decades ago — until they were yanked away by county officials after a mentally ill inmate died while being restrained by jail guards and zapped.

It’s not as if the sheriff was unaware of the history: As an up-and-coming sergeant in 1989, Smith helped lead the investigation into 37-year-old Jeffrey Leonti’s death, according to court documents. The county settled his parents’ wrongful death lawsuit for $650,000, or nearly $1.2 million in today’s dollars.

The coroner at the time ruled that Leonti died of acute cardiac arrest due to the Taser, a finding the manufacturer disputed. Arizona-based Taser International, which rebranded this year as Axon, has defended its product as safe when used properly.

The revelation about Leonti’s death, which surfaced in a murder trial, angered activists who have said it proves that it is too soon after three jail guards beat a mentally ill inmate to death in 2015 to arm correctional officers with Tasers.

In June, Santa Clara County supervisors set aside $45,000 to equip about 40 of nearly 800 correctional officers with Tasers, but prohibited Smith from tapping the funds until she comes up with a use policy by June 30 that meets with their approval.

“I’m appalled we weren’t told about this,” said LaDoris Cordell, the retired judge and former San Jose independent police auditor who chaired the county’s blue ribbon commission on jail reform. Cordell has endorsed John Hirokawa, Smith’s opponent in the upcoming June election. “It boggles my mind that the same person who investigated the death is now advocating to arm 40 jail guards with Tasers — and that she continues to mislead and cover up what is happening in the jails.’’

The omission also disturbed Rev. Jethroe Moore of the NAACP.

“It shows we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work and it cost taxpayers money,” Moore said. “So why introduce an unhealthy outcome into the jails?”

But one of the sheriff’s toughest critics was not particularly perturbed about the 28-year-old incident.

“Did I know about it — no,” said Supervisor Joe Simitian, who raised concerns in May about the potential liability of Tasers and urged the board to require the use-of-force policy first. “Is it useful information — yes. A single incident is noteworthy, but I’m more interested in a broader set of data.”

The sheriff’s office did not respond directly this week to questions about why Smith didn’t mention inmate Leonti’s death, either during the budget hearings or in late August when activists marked the second anniversary of Michael Tyree’s beating death at the hands of jail guards by protesting the Taser proposal. Three jail guards in Tyree’s case were convicted of second-degree murder.

A sheriff’s spokesman noted that things have changed since Leonti died in 1989. Correctional officers who use Tasers will be equipped this time with body cameras, he said. The department also has a new use-of-force policy that stresses de-escalation and “places a high value on a more holistic approach within our custody facilities,” which has led to a new “mindset” in the jails, he said in an email.

He also contended that Tasers have improved greatly since the 1970s model that the coroner said caused Leonti’s death. Now, they “immediately incapacitate perpetrators of violent encounters,” he said.

However, a federal jury in San Jose recently awarded $1 million to the family of Steve Salinas, an overweight man who was high on PCP and died after San Jose police zapped him 10 times in 93 seconds.

San Jose began using the Tasers in 2004 in hopes of cutting down injuries and reducing the need for officers to fire their guns. At least five people have died in the past 13 years after being shocked with a Taser.

Advocates, including unions that represent sheriff’s deputies and correctional officers, say electronic control devices are an essential tool to save lives because they can break up vicious fights between inmates, as well as attacks on them in situations where pepper spray is ineffective.

For instance, in late March, two men ambushed another inmate and stabbed him dozens of times with homemade shivs, despite being doused with pepper spray by more than one officer. The fight broke up only when multiple officers arrived.

Jail dorms are also frequently staffed by just one guard — at a time when more than 40 inmates at a time can be mingling in the pod, as the result of legal agreements between inmate rights groups and the county that call for more out-of-cell time.

The jail also houses more higher-risk inmates than it used to, including members of the Nuestra Familia and other Northern California gangs. And advocates also point out that as a result of a federal lawsuit, the county and the Prison Law Office have overhauled the use-of-force policy for the jail, greatly increasing inmates’ rights. For instance, intentional cruel punishment, such as once-common public humiliation, is prohibited under any circumstances.

But opponents aren’t ready to trust correctional officers with the devices yet. Some at the rally for Tyree in August noted that at least a dozen guards — including the previous president of the correctional officers union, who was fired as a result — repeatedly exchanged racist text messages, mixing vile slurs with casual brutality, and even sharing images of a Nazi swastika and a lynching.

“A culture doesn’t change overnight,” Shannon Tyree, one of Michael Tyree’s sisters, wrote in a letter read at the protest, “and I believe too much opportunity for the misuse of these Tasers exists.”