By Jeff McDonald, Kelly Davis
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO — The civilian board that monitors the Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department will see its oversight authority expanded to include health care workers in cases of in-custody deaths, following a divided vote Tuesday by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
Elected supervisors voted 4-1 to broaden the jurisdiction of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB, in the wake of continuing deaths of people in the custody of the San Diego County sheriff.
Supervisor Jim Desmond opposed the measure, saying he would have preferred to see an independent assessment of whether to expand the oversight board’s authority.
Under county rules, the plan will return to the board for what’s called a second reading later this month and go into effect after that is approved.
The vote Tuesday caps a nine-month process that began late last year, when Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe first proposed the civilian board be granted authority to review the actions of jail medical staff and contractors after someone dies in custody.
Too often, the review board has been unable to fully investigate jail deaths because it lacks jurisdiction over county health care workers and contractors, she said.
“We can do better than what we have been doing by the families,” Montgomery Steppe said. “With the right tools, we can ensure that the tragic and preventable deaths do come to an end. Families who have lost loved ones in the San Diego County jails deserve those answers.”
Sheriff Kelly Martinez appeared before the supervisors to oppose expanding CLERB’s authority.
Previously, in a memo to the board last month, she suggested that the county create a correctional health care oversight unit similar to one she said was used in Los Angeles County.
When The San Diego Union-Tribune pointed out that no such unit exists, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson acknowledged the error without explanation.
The sheriff nonetheless suggested in her comments Tuesday an alternative plan that would involve “an independent and comprehensive assessment of the quality and effectiveness of health care services delivered within the jail.”
She said the complexities of providing care to a population with significant needs called for more structured oversight.
“This ordinance is unprecedented and has not been done anywhere in the country,” she said. “Rather than focus on review, we must focus on prevention.”
Martinez promoted the efforts the Sheriff’s Office has made since she won election in November 2022, and noted that fewer people have died in custody in recent years — down from a high of 19 in 2022 to 13 in 2023 and nine last year.
Eight people have died in San Diego County jails so far this year, sheriff’s records show.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in July and last month on the particularly gruesome deaths of two men who were each allowed to die in their own filth despite repeated pleas from men in nearby cells to get them help.
“It’s not just the numbers; it’s the stories that we hear,” Montgomery Steppe said. “That’s why I think it’s important to move forward with this.”
The supervisors’ decision comes barely a week after the death of Steven Curren, a 35-year-old who died in the downtown Central Jail one day after he was arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft and possession of stolen property.
Curren’s death pushed the number of jail deaths since 2006 over 250, based on sheriff’s records and a 2022 state audit that found San Diego County jails were so dangerous, new legislation was needed to fix them.
CLERB has been tasked with investigating misconduct and negligence by sheriff’s deputies and probation officers since it was established in the early 1990s.
It also reviews officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths, although its findings are strictly advisory. That means the sheriff and chief probation officer are not obliged to implement its recommendations.
The idea of expanding the board’s jurisdiction to include jail health care providers was proposed by former CLERB Executive Officer Paul Parker more than two years ago.
But Parker made little progress and grew so frustrated with what he said was a lack of support from elected supervisors that he resigned. He was succeeded last summer by career FBI agent Brett Kalina.
At the hearing Tuesday, Kalina said that over the last three years, CLERB has dismissed at least 75 allegations against health care providers due to lack of jurisdiction.
CLERB Chair MaryAnne Pintar said the review board is not trying to “lay blame or point fingers” but rather to improve practices and assure the public and families of people who die in jail that deputies and health care workers provide responsible and effective care.
“We do not dispute the sheriff has made some dramatic improvements,” she said. “We appreciate that very much … CLERB wants to work with the sheriff to curb deaths in county facilities.”
The debate Tuesday attracted dozens of speakers and comments from members of the public, most of whom said they supported the plan to broaden the review board’s authority.
“You guys have got to get somebody else in there to see what’s going on — and report it,” said a man named Ricky Weaver who said he had been in jail before.
A man who identified himself as Michael Golden questioned the credibility of the sheriff‘s claims of improvements in her jails.
“If the sheriff is doing an exceptional job, why do we have so many deaths in jail?” he asked. “They have a total disregard for basic human rights. The sheriff’s culture is committing homicide.”
The comment was not entirely hyperbolic. The Medical Examiner’s Office has classified the deaths of two men as homicides since 2022, citing the jail staff’s failure to provide proper medical care.
Before casting her vote in favor of expanding CLERB authority, Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said it is the county’s responsibility to take care of people in sheriff’s custody.
She also noted the cost to taxpayers when families of people who die in county jails file lawsuits and win millions of dollars in settlements or jury awards.
“We are making progress; we are moving in the right direction overall,” Lawson-Remer said. But “the legal liability falls on the county as a whole, so this is a financial issue as well as a moral issue.”
For his part, Desmond said he preferred that any oversight of jail medical staff and contractors be performed by licensed health care professionals.
“Correctional health care is a really highly specialized field,” he said.
Kalina told supervisors that the ordinance before them included money not only for additional staff, but also for experts to advise CLERB investigators on medical and mental health issues as needed.
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