She was 21. She had crossed America on a road trip and was excited about staying in California. But over months, she was living on the streets and struggling. After she trespassed on private property and had a confrontation with the landowner, she was jailed on misdemeanor charges.
Nine days later, she died by suicide.
Alicia Upton was one of 19 people who died in the custody of Riverside County jails in 2022, its deadliest year in more than three decades. That rate ranked the jail system, run by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, among the most lethal in the nation, and the second-most in California. The deaths included homicides, drug overdoses, natural deaths and suicides.
Those suicides provide a detailed account of troubling — and persistent — patterns in Riverside County jails that put detainees at risk, particularly those with mental health issues, The New York Times and The Desert Sun found.
Here are five takeaways from the investigation.
The department failed to adequately monitor detainees and intervene when they attempted suicide.
When Ms. Upton was booked at a county jail in April 2022, deputies noted, she was distraught and told them “she always kinda wanted to die.” She was housed in the jail’s mental health unit for women, where a cell camera feed was required to be constantly monitored by deputies/guards to protect detainees’ safety.
One evening, she contacted a guard through her cell’s intercom, but whoever answered hung up almost immediately. The video then captured her saying she would kill herself, and showed the steps she took in ending her life. But deputies did not notice for 20 minutes after the intercom call.
Detainees with mental illnesses were able to block cell cameras and cell door windows, despite rules forbidding it.
Aaron Aubrey spent the better part of two years segregated from other people in the jail system after being accused of killing another detainee in 2020. About 40 minutes before he was found dead in his cell, a deputy saw that he had covered his cell door window and camera, but did not intervene. That is contrary to standard practice, according to current and former employees.
Deputies did not always place people expressing suicidal thoughts in cells where they can be constantly monitored.
Robert Robinson told deputies he was having suicidal thoughts when he was arrested in September 2022. He was not placed on suicide watch or put in a cell with an internal monitoring camera, according to court records. He later told deputies he was suicidal, but after a brief examination by jail medical staff, he was cleared to return to his cell. About an hour later, he was found dead.
The department has omitted pertinent facts about the deaths to families and to the public.
Mario Solis had been prescribed antipsychotic medication during his chaotic five-month incarceration. Three times, he said he was suicidal and talked about stabbing himself with a pencil. In September 2022, while held in a cell in a mental health unit, he died after swallowing two pencils, soap and other items.
His mother, Sara Solis, didn’t learn any of this until she sued the department and obtained jail records. Sheriff Chad Bianco, who also serves as the county’s coroner, had certified that the death was an accident. The department’s coroner report does not mention his suicide threats or extensive mental health history, or explain why his death was not ruled a suicide.
In Ms. Upton’s case, her mother, Nichole Thompson, asked the sheriff’s department for arrest reports, jail records, photos and the video footage of her daughter’s death, but said the department did not turn over much of what she had requested. Only after a reporter described the video did Ms. Thompson learn that her daughter had attempted to communicate with guards shortly before her death, and that none of those assigned to monitor her cell camera feed intervened until it was too late.
The county has paid out millions in settlements related to the jail deaths.
Riverside County agreed to pay more than $12 million to settle lawsuits related to jail deaths dating back to 2020. Mr. Robinson’s family agreed to a $1.8 million settlement earlier this year. At least a dozen other cases from recent years are pending in federal court, including suits by the families of Ms. Upton and Mr. Solis.
The post Inside a Deadly Southern California Jail System: 5 Takeaways appeared first on New York Times.
