The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted today to empower a citizens review board for law enforcement to take stronger measures in probing in-custody deaths.
The board voted 4-1 for Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe's ordinance to strengthen the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, a move she hailed afterward as "a bold and necessary step forward."
The amendments in Tuesday's ordinance are as follows:
- authorizing CLERB to investigate any county employee or contractor, including health care providers, working under direction of the sheriff or probation department in connection with in-custody deaths.
- requiring CLERB to finish all investigations within one year of discovering allegations of misconduct and publicly reporting any delays.
- investigations will no longer be automatically dismissed after one year.
- requiring CLERB to prioritize cases involving in-custody deaths over "all other cases, even those classified as `natural,' and reopen a closed case in narrow circumstances."
"These amendments make long-needed changes to CLERB, into a more effective oversight board," Montgomery Steppe said earlier Tuesday. "With the right tools, we can ensure that the tragic and preventable deaths that we've seen in the San Diego County jail system come to an end."
Montgomery Steppe, who serves as board vice char, also thanked the community for fighting for answers and solutions.
"Families who have lost loved ones in the jail system deserve answers," she added. "The public deserves answers."
Supervisor Jim Desmond was the lone no vote. In a recent emailed statement, Desmond said he couldn't "support expanding CLERB's jurisdiction into correctional health care because it's already a highly regulated field overseen by medical boards and state and federal laws."
"I do support independent assessments to improve care, but duplicating regulation isn't the answer," Desmond added.
Before voting on Tuesday, Desmond said he appreciated what CLERB is doing.
"Nobody's perfect on this and we don't want to have any deaths," he added.
Now in its 35th year, CLERB was formed to "independently and impartially investigate citizen complaints against San Diego County sheriff's deputies and probation officers," as described on the county web site.
The group is composed of 11 volunteer members from all five supervisory districts.
The reforms were first proposed last December in response "to longstanding concerns about CLERB's limited authority to investigate the full circumstances surrounding in-custody deaths," according to a statement from Montgomery Steppe's office.
During Tuesday's public comment period, some residents spoke in favor of stronger oversight.
Paloma Serna, whose daughter Elisa died in 2019 while being held in the Las Colinas facility, said supervisors shouldn't "pass oversight on paper and starve it in practice."
"I have stood at this podium, again and again, and I will keep hearing the same words: `We can't look at the contracted medical side,"' Serna said, adding that CLERB expansion "ends that excuse."
"It reaches the doctors, nurses and companies whose decisions (determines) whether a human being lives or dies," Serna said. "This year, people are still dying in our jails. Be clear and be brave. Vote yes on (this item)."
At the Sept. 9 supervisors' meeting, in which the board advanced the proposal, San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez voiced her opposition to any changes to the ordinance. In a recent statement from the Sheriff's Office, Martinez said she "understands and agrees that community trust and transparency of jail operations is critical," but suggested an alternative route in which supervisors would "support an independent, interdisciplinary assessment of jail health care that would evaluate clinical quality, operations, governance and accountability."
"While I am disappointed the majority of the Board of Supervisors did not approve my recommendation for an independent, comprehensive evaluation of our jail health care system, my commitment to the individuals in our custody remains unchanged, and I will move forward on advancing improvements," Martinez added.
Since 2006, 250 people have died in San Diego County jails, with the most recent being 35-year-old Steven Curren on Aug. 30.
Curren was incarcerated Aug. 29 following an arrest on suspicion of vehicle theft and possession of stolen property, according to sheriff's officials.
Finding Curren unconscious in his cell, jailers called 911 and began trying to revive him, Lt. Juan Marquez said. Paramedics then took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Some in-custody deaths have resulted in the county having to pay out millions of dollars in legal settlements.
So far this year, eight people have died in county jails, according to Montgomery Steppe's office.
