CA law does not allow sheriffs to investigate deaths in their own jails

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yes good California’s prison population is down The number of people dying in prisons has increased in recent years. Too many of these deaths are preventable including suicides, drug overdoses and murders.

These deaths occur under the supervision of county sheriffs, elected officials responsible for the care and custody of people incarcerated in county jails.

Sheriffs also provide policing in some areas of their counties and protect courthouses. However, in 48 of California’s 58 counties, the elected sheriff simultaneously serves as a coroner, overseeing medical investigations of suspicious and unattended deaths.

What does it mean when someone dies in prison?

In those 48 counties, the same official charged with keeping inmates alive had the authority to oversee and approve medical examinations of those deaths. This is a clear conflict of interest.

This will no longer be the case.

Alarmed by this conflict, I drafted House Bill 1108 California Judicial Accountability, Transparency and Custody Security (FACTS) Act. . Governor Newsom signed the law in October, ending the practice of allowing sheriffs to oversee medical investigations of deaths that occur in their custody.

Beginning in January 2027, independent medical investigations will be required for all deaths in law enforcement custody, including those in county jails and state prisons, and deaths that occur while in custody.

Counties with combined sheriff and medical examiner offices will need to contract with another county’s civil medical examiner’s office or an independent medical examiner not affiliated with the sheriff. This independent medical examiner will oversee the scope of the investigation and his determination of the cause and cause of death will be recorded on the death certificate.

Preventable deaths

The conflict of interest addressed by this new law is not hypothetical. This has influenced numerous investigations in recent years.

After a series of preventable deaths at the Santa Barbara County Jail, a civil grand jury is investigating the case further. Two independent doctors hired by the grand jury suggested that a death in custody in 2022 should have been classified as a homicide, not an accident.

The grand jury also determined that the sheriff’s coroner falsely declared that death in 2025 was imminent without disclosing that the incarcerated man died after being denied life-saving medical treatment for two days.

Before San Joaquin County separated the roles of sheriff and coroner in 2018, the sheriff’s office’s chief medical examiner resigned after the sheriff tried to overturn his decisions.

Even in the absence of bias or misconduct, image alone undermines public trust. Families deserve confidence that investigations into the deaths of their loved ones are independent and impartial.

AB 1108 represents an important step toward greater accountability in our prison system. But this work is not finished.

Before serving in the Legislature, I was a county supervisor. I have often heard from family members of incarcerated people about the dysfunction of our local jails. I have reviewed cases of significant mismanagement.

While my colleagues and I had strong opinions about how to improve outcomes in prisons, our policy-making powers were limited to the prison door.

Write blank checks

Under current state law, boards of supervisors are effectively required to issue blank checks to sheriffs to run county jails (assuming full financial responsibility for the jails but without the authority to force necessary operational changes), even as widespread problems persist year after year.

This was not always the case. From 1957 to 1993, boards of supervisors could appoint an official — other than the sheriff — to run the county jail.

Since 1993 The sheriffs had sole and exclusive authority on prison operations. Three decades later, it is clear that this arrangement impedes effective control.

In February, I introduced another reform to give county governments a tool to better manage prison systems and strengthen accountability. If approved Bill 2257 counties will have the option of maintaining sheriff-run jails or appoint another official to operate the county jail system.

Bad prisons reduce public safety, disrespect taxpayers, and have a negative impact on incarcerated people and the prison workforce.

As our state builds the “California Model” for 21st century corrections and rehabilitation, addressing the crises in our county jails is of the utmost importance.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under license Creative Commons Attribution/Attribution-Noncommercial.