With support from local activists, Assemblymember Akilah Weber on Tuesday is asking for transparency at San Diego County jails.
Weber will be requesting a full audit of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office to the state’s legislative audit committee Wednesday.
Yusef Miller, director of the North County Equity and Justice Coalition held a press conference Tuesday outside Las Colinas Detention Facility where 24-year-old Elisa Serna died in November.
He’s hoping locals will take part in Wednesday’s hearing.
“We are standing up for Elisa Serna, who lost her life right here at Las Colinas Detention Center,” Miller said.
Serna’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit for what happened to their daughter while in custody at the facility.
A 2019 investigation by The San Diego Union-Tribune found that the county’s jail mortality rate is among the highest in California.
“More than 150 people have died in the custody of the San Diego Sheriff's department since 2009,” Genevieve Jones-Wright, founder of Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance, said.
“We’re here to say that her life mattered and all the people who lost their lives in custody matter," Miller said. "Of course, we are not talking about cancer deaths, stroke deaths, we’re talking about preventable negligence deaths.”
The state’s Legislative Audit Committee Hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
“Send in your testimonies of in-custody deaths that have happened in this area, we need this,” Miller said.
Emails can be sent to katie.guthrie@asm.ca.gov
To listen to the hearing visit legaudit.assembly.ca.gov/hearings
