Why California jail death crisis focuses on San Diego

Over the last ten years, California has been locking up fewer people in jail. But the number of people dying in them has increased, with the past few years being the most deadly. And as advocates continue to face setbacks for the additional accountability they seek, jail deaths in one county have sparked protests and were the focus of a 2022 state audit.

San Diego County has one of the highest jail death rates in California, explains CalMatters justice reporter Nigel Duara in his second story on the issue. From 2006 through 2020, 185 people died in its jails, including a record high of 18 deaths in 2021. Things haven’t gotten better in recent years: 2023 was the county’s third-highest on record. 

San Diego County is one of the few in the state that grants civilians a review process for their sheriff’s department, which operates detention facilities. But the review board can only make recommendations to the county’s board of supervisors; it can’t force the sheriff’s department to make changes. (A new law inspired by the county, however, seeks to rein in sheriffs’ powers in jails.)

Roadblocks to reduce jail deaths also led to the head of the county’s Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board to quit. Last month, Paul Parker abruptly resigned after being appointed in 2020 when the review board was given more power to investigate in-custody deaths.

During his tenure, Parker proposed hiring an inspector general with subpoena power to investigate jail deaths, but the review board refused to make that recommendation. Parker also proposed scanning jail employees for contraband (between 2021 to 2023, 13 inmates died from drug overdoses in San Diego jails). San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez rejected his proposal.

• Parker: “I spent three-and-a-half years banging my head against the wall. Am I going to continue banging my head against the wall here for something I don’t think is going to change?”

Sheriff Martinez declined to talk with CalMatters, but in a 2023 interview with KFMB-TV, Martinez said the department has “been working really hard on improvements to our jails.” That year, San Diego County jail deaths dropped from 19 in 2022 to 13, though it was still among the highest in the state.

Martinez has also reversed course on one policy: In February 2022, while serving as acting sheriff and campaigning for the job, Martinez said she would make all in-custody death reviews public. But the sheriff’s office only posts summaries, with none of the supporting documents.

Meanwhile, activists, including Sabrina Weddle, continue to push for more accountability. In July 2021, Weddle’s brother died from a drug overdose in a San Diego jail four days after his admittance. A review board investigation found that either sworn or non-sworn personnel “failed to prevent illicit drugs from entering the detention facility.”

• Weddle: “They get to do what they please, they get no reprimand. I just get a dead brother.” 

For more on San Diego County jail deaths, read Nigel’s story.

CalMatters investigates: Our mental health reporter Jocelyn Wiener is looking into how well insurance companies are following a state law that requires them to pay for medically necessary mental health and addiction treatment. Are you a patient, family member, health care provider or insurance employee with a story or a tip? Here’s how to get it to Jocelyn.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest moves to defend abortion rights are aimed at a neighbor, plus a Deep South state.

Targeting Arizona, he is pushing legislation to make it easier for that state’s residents to obtain abortion services in California, following the Arizona high court’s ruling upholding an 1864 abortion ban, Politico reports. Under the bill, Arizona abortion providers could get licensed in California under an expedited process, in as few as 5 to 10 days, increasing the physician workforce to treat additional patients from Arizona. He plans to unveil the bill this week as an emergency measure with the Legislative Women’s Caucus. 

Brandon Richards, a Newsom spokesperson, said that the California government is “coordinating closely” with the Arizona governor’s office and its attorney general in response to the court’s “shocking resurrection” of the ban. 

And aiming at Alabama, Newsom is launching a new TV ad today, through his Campaign for Democracy PAC, that blasts a bill in that state that would make it a crime to help minors obtain an abortion without informing a parent or guardian, including by harboring or transporting a girl. 

Newsom previewed the ad Sunday in an appearance on MSNBC, in which he was interviewed from a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sacramento.

• Newsom, on Republican states that are imposing abortion restrictions: “We’re not just criminalizing women’s access to reproductive care in certain states, now we’re criminalizing their travel.”

Newsom and Democratic allies in the Legislature have acted to make California even more of an abortion rights haven ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Democrats approved a series of new laws and successfully persuaded voters to enshrine abortion rights in California’s constitution in November 2022.

Democrats are counting on abortion rights as an issue that can galvanize their voters in November. Newsom is a top cheerleader for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. On MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” the governor also called former President Donald Trump “a liar” for declaring recently that he wouldn’t sign a national abortion ban.

Earth Day: Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom plan to be in Stanislaus County today to dedicate the state’s first new state park in nearly a decade.

Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas has a long history with labor. Raised by a single mother, the Los Angeles Democrat joined the Newspaper Guild while reporting at the Oakland Tribune, served as a community organizer for the Service Employees International Union and co-founded the Los Angeles Black Worker Center. 

Elected to the state Senate in 2022, she is now chairperson of the labor committee. She is also the only Black woman in the state Senate, though with the record number of Black women who ran in the March primary, that may change next year. “I think we should all have a big party for that,” she said. I talked to Smallwood-Cuevas about her approach to labor legislation. The interview has been shortened for clarity and length.

What is it about labor that’s important to you?

(My mother) was a poor young black woman, just trying to make it. It wasn’t until she got a really good job, when she became a nurse where she got paid a decent wage, that our lives changed. So I always carry that with me. 

I know every family, their lives will be materially different for generations, if they can just get that one good job that helps them pay their bills. I recognize that it is really about equity for those families. Because if we can stabilize families, like my mother’s, California will be stable.

You serve on the committee for business and economic development, too. How do you reconcile the needs of both groups?

I think about the fast food workers and the $20 an hour (wage increase), and folks are like, “Why should fast food (workers) have $20 an hour?” Well, a studio apartment is $2,200. It has to happen. But how does it happen in a way where our businesses can be sustainable?

Speaking of, how do you think that rollout of the recent fast food law has been, given the blowback it has received?

When we’re trying to tackle these kinds of issues, it’s complicated. I mean, me rolling out my new hairstyle can be complicated, right? I’m just saying things are complex, things are not easy. 

California is in a unique position because our economy is so large and we have so many workers and we drive the country. We certainly are a star player on the world stage economically. If we can figure these things out, we can figure out ways to bring the rest of the world and the country with us.

Cal/OSHA has recently approved rules to protect workers from indoor heat that have been long delayed, and workers must wait for enforcement. What can the Legislature do to fix this and make sure workers are safe?

People shouldn’t be dying at work. I mean, that’s Industrial Revolution stuff, that we should know. It’s hard with some of the technical elements, we kind of lose touch of why we’re doing what we’re doing. But the key is to keep people alive while they’re at work, and that they have water and the cool air to help them be able to survive whatever work environment they have. 

Do you have a specific philosophy or approach in steering the labor committee? 

I love workers. I am a worker. Part of my labor experience was being a worker in an industry that was going through a deep transition — journalism. When I came out (of journalism), the internet had been born and (journalism) was going through a deep transformation. Then the bottom fell out.

We have one big economy, but there are some economies that are at a place where we’ve got to lift them up in order for our overall economy to thrive. That’s why I’m really proud of the work on Senate Bill 150. This is a bill that’s looking at the federal funding coming into the state and the green infrastructure projects we’re building.

(Some background: SB 150 was signed into law in 2023 and reserves at least $50 million over four years in federal funding for state job-building programs that include partnerships with employers and labor unions.)

Meet more key lawmakers: Read my interviews with new Assembly committee chairpersons: Democrats Alex Lee of Milpitas who leads human services; Kevin McCarty of Sacramento who heads public safety; and Chris Ward of San Diego who leads the housing committee.

Speaking of the fast food law, one curious aspect of “PaneraGate” was the revelation that business and labor representatives in the final negotiations last year were required to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Now, there’s officially a bill to stop that. 

As he vowed, Assemblymember Vince Fong, a Bakersfield Republican who is running for Congress, has legislation to prohibit lobbyists, legislators, legislative staff, governor’s office staff and other public officials from signing or requesting these secrecy pacts in the “drafting, negotiation, discussion, or creation of legislation.” AB 2654 would also make any such agreements after the bill becomes law void and unenforceable.

The California Chamber of Commerce, however, quickly came out against the measure, saying that it is unnecessary because NDAs are already banned for public officials in policy discussions, while they are sometimes critical for private parties to have “frank discussions around complicated issues.” 

The bill is also on the clock: Friday is the deadline for bills to pass their first policy committee. This one has been assigned to the Governmental Organization committee, which doesn’t have a meeting scheduled this week. (Update: The Assembly referred the bill to the elections committee, with plans to hear it Thursday.)

And because it would change a voter-approved measure, it needs two-thirds approval in both the Assembly and Senate to reach the governor’s desk.

The back story: Bloomberg reported that a major campaign donor to Gov. Newsom, who also happens to be a billionaire franchise owner of Panera Bread, had discussions on a carve-out from the $20 hourly minimum wage for fast food workers that started April 1. Legislative Republicans called for an investigation, both Newsom and franchisee Greg Flynn denied any wrongdoing and the state eventually confirmed that Panera and similar bakeries had to pay the higher wage.

In the scoop by KCRA’s Ashley Zavala, sources told her that the Service Employees International Union, which sponsored the law, required the non-disclosure agreements. Newsom’s office says that he didn’t sign one and didn’t tell anyone else to do so. SEIU called the report a “nothingburger made of innuendo and hype” that “fails to distinguish conversations taking place between private parties and the public process by which a bill becomes law.”

If Fong’s bill is signed, the “nothingburger” will lead to a new law. 

For the record: An item in Friday’s newsletter has been updated to correct that a CalMatters investigation focused on a parole — not probation — program.