For more than a decade, warnings about deaths inside San Diego County jails have come from every direction. Families have spoken out. Journalists have documented patterns that should have triggered reform. Disability Rights California raised concerns. The California State Auditor identified systemic failures. I have written about it for years.
What was missing, we were told, was definitive proof.
That proof now exists. Independent statisticians, commissioned by the county’s own oversight body, have completed the most rigorous outside study ever conducted on in-custody deaths in San Diego County. Their findings do not introduce a new story. They confirm, with data and analysis, what has already been seen and too often dismissed…