While California’s statewide jail population has declined in recent years, the number of people dying in jails has increased. Too many of these deaths are preventable — including suicides, drug overdoses, and homicides.

These deaths occur under the watch of county sheriffs, elected officials responsible for the care and custody of people incarcerated in county jails.

Sheriffs also provide police services in parts of their counties and protect the courts. In 48 of California’s 58 counties, however, the elected sheriff simultaneously serves as the coroner, overseeing medical investigations into suspicious and unattended deaths.

What does that mean when someone dies in jail?

In those 48 counties, the same official charged with keeping incarcerated individuals alive has had the authority to oversee — and sign off on — the medical investigation into what went wrong. That is a clear conflict of interest.

This will no longer be the case.

Alarmed by this conflict, I authored Assembly Bill 1108 — the California Forensic Accountability, Custodial Transparency and Safety (FACTS) Act. Governor Newsom signed the bill into law in October, ending the practice of allowing sheriffs to oversee medical investigations into deaths that occur in their custody.

Come January 2027, independent medical investigations will be required for all deaths in custody — including those in county jails and state prisons, as well as deaths that occur during arrests.

Counties with combined sheriff-coroner offices will be required to contract with another county’s civilian medical examiner’s office or with an independent physician unaffiliated with the sheriff. That independent medical examiner will control the scope of the investigation, and their determination of the cause and manner of death will appear on the death certificate.

Preventable deaths

The conflict of interest addressed by this new law is not hypothetical. It has affected numerous investigations in recent years.

Following a string of preventable deaths at the Santa Barbara County Jail, a civil grand jury took a closer look. Two independent physicians retained by the grand jury suggested that a 2022 in-custody death should have been classified as a homicide rather than an accident.

The grand jury also found that the sheriff-coroner falsely announced that a 2025 death was unavoidable, failing to disclose that the incarcerated person died after being denied potentially lifesaving care for two days.

Prior to San Joaquin County separating the roles of sheriff and coroner in 2018, the lead physician in the sheriff-coroner’s office resigned after the sheriff attempted to override the physician’s medical judgment.

Even in the absence of bias or misconduct, the optics alone erode public trust. Families deserve confidence that investigations into the deaths of their loved ones are independent and impartial.

AB 1108 represents an important step toward greater accountability in our jail system. But this work is not finished.

Before serving in the Legislature, I was a county supervisor. I regularly heard from relatives of incarcerated people about the dysfunction of our local jails. I reviewed cases of significant mismanagement.

While my colleagues and I had strong views about how to improve jail outcomes, our policymaking authority stopped at the jail door.

Writing blank checks

Under current state law, boards of supervisors are effectively required to write blank checks to sheriffs to operate county jails — bearing full financial responsibility for jails but lacking authority to compel needed operational changes — even as pervasive issues persist year after year.

That was not always the case. From 1957 to 1993, boards of supervisors could appoint an official —other than the sheriff — to operate the county jail.

Since 1993, sheriffs have held sole and exclusive authority over jail operations. Three decades later, it is clear that this arrangement prevents meaningful checks and balances.

In February I introduced another reform to give county governments a tool to better manage jail systems and strengthen accountability. Assembly Bill 2257, if passed, would give counties the option to maintain sheriff-run jails or appoint a different official to operate the county jail system.

Failing jails diminish public safety, disrespect taxpayers and negatively impact incarcerated individuals and the correctional workforce.

As our state builds the “California Model” for 21st century corrections and rehabilitation, confronting the crises in our county jails is of paramount importance.

Gregg Hart is a Democratic Assembly member who represents District 37, which includes Santa Barbara.