Almost three years after the California State Auditor uncovered a spate of serious and deadly lapses in San Diego County jails, the newest member of the Board of Supervisors is proposing sweeping changes to the civilian oversight board that monitors the sheriff and her department.
Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe introduced a plan Thursday to broaden the jurisdiction and authority of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, the independent county agency known as CLERB that oversees the Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department.
Montgomery Steppe, who was sworn in as a San Diego County supervisor one year ago this week, said even though the number of deaths in local jails has dipped in recent months, the county must do more to keep people from dying in custody.
“The individuals who have lost their lives are not just statistics,” Montgomery Steppe said at a press event Thursday outside the County Administration Center. “We owe it to their families, their communities and our own collective conscience to ensure that these deaths are investigated thoroughly, transparently and fairly.”
The 4th District supervisor was joined by CLERB’s chair, MaryAnne Pintar, and by Brett Kalina, the longtime FBI special agent who took over as the board’s executive officer earlier this year.
They announced a series of reforms aimed at reducing the number of people who die in San Diego County jails, a seven-facility system state auditors said was so dangerous that new laws were needed to protect people in it.
Their audit, released in February 2022, identified 185 deaths in local jails between 2006 and 2020 and said San Diego County had one of the highest mortality rates among California counties.
“More disturbingly, after the report was published, the rate of in-custody deaths in San Diego County jails further increased,” Montgomery Steppe’s report to her board colleagues says. “In 2021, there was a record of 18 jail deaths, which was surpassed a year later, when there were 19 jail deaths.”
The most significant proposed change calls on the Board of Supervisors to expand the review board’s investigative authority to include jail nurses, physicians and other medical staff — among them contractors — in its probes of in-custody deaths.
The plan also would require CLERB to implement a reporting rule to make sure investigations into deputy misconduct are completed within one year, and it would grant the oversight body authority to reopen closed cases under certain circumstances.
Montgomery Steppe also wants to increase CLERB’s budget and staffing, if needed. She is asking her fellow supervisors to approve the proposals when they meet Tuesday.
The Sheriff’s Office said any expansion of the review board’s authority would require more staff so it could respond to CLERB requests quickly and accurately.
“This requirement is not included in the current board letter, but the sheriff will work with the county so they understand that the added workload of this oversight will require more personnel,” spokesperson Kimberly King said in an email.
Pintar and Kalina both said reforms were necessary if San Diego County is serious about reducing jail deaths — and the tens of millions of dollars they have cost taxpayers in legal settlements and jury awards in recent years.
“Families of people who have died in custody come to every one of our meetings, and they plead with us to look at how health care is provided in our detention facilities and how that may have played a role in the death of their loved one — but currently we have no authority to do that,” Pintar said outside the County Administration Center Thursday.
Jurisdiction over medical staff would allow “a more thorough assessment of what might have gone wrong and propose changes,” she added.
Kalina said the expanded jurisdiction would help improve safety and jail operating practices.
“One death that could have been prevented is one too many,” he said.
The proposed expansion of CLERB’s jurisdiction to include jail medical staff and contractors was also a longtime goal of Kalina’s predecessor, Paul Parker, who quit in frustration earlier this year.
Parker said Thursday that he was grateful the review board authority could be expanded to nurses, doctors and other health care providers but said the jurisdiction should not be limited to death cases.
“It’s absolutely critical that CLERB have jurisdiction over all medical care providers,” he said. “I am hopeful that they will eventually include expansion of jurisdiction over medical care providers in all cases, not just deaths.”
Montgomery Steppe’s letter mentions 25-year-old Vianna Granillo, who died after medical staff failed to put her on the jail’s drug withdrawal protocol and were slow to respond when she was found unresponsive in her cell.
“CLERB summarily dismissed allegations of misconduct against jail healthcare workers and concluded it lacked jurisdiction to investigate the allegations,” the letter says. “CLERB’s inability to complete a thorough investigation has left many questions unanswered about the circumstances of (Granillo’s) death.”
The citizens’ review board dates back to the early 1990s, when voters agreed to establish an outside body to oversee the Sheriff’s Office and Probation Department.
But CLERB was historically understaffed and underfunded, and its policy recommendations and disciplinary findings are strictly advisory. County rules call for the elected sheriff and appointed chief probation officer to consider the oversight board’s reports, but they do not require that the recommendations be implemented.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last month that the sheriff and probation chief had either rejected or had not yet responded to almost two-thirds of the 91 separate recommendations CLERB issued in the past five years.
One recommendation from the board has called for the Sheriff’s Office to body-scan all county jail employees and visitors to prevent drugs from being smuggled inside. The sheriff has resisted that proposal, saying there is no evidence officers are bringing drugs into the jails, and has instead implemented a random screening program.
Montgomery Steppe noted in her board letter that more than one-fourth of the jail deaths recorded between 2021 and 2023 were due to drug overdoses.
The changes proposed by Montgomery Steppe come as Chief Probation Officer Tamika Nelson has resisted CLERB’s requests for evidence, documents and other information needed to complete investigations.
The Sheriff’s Office has also delayed an independent review of jail deaths by a firm hired by CLERB to study in-custody deaths and propose policies that could better protect people in jail. Pintar last month sent Martinez a letter requesting that her office “immediately cooperate” with the researchers.
The Sheriff’s Office said the consultants had wrongly sought confidential and legally protected information.
In a separate report from October, the review board said the Probation Department had repeatedly withheld evidence, forcing it to close investigations into potential abuse by officers at the county’s juvenile halls.
The abuses and misconduct CLERB investigates have often led to lawsuits, and payouts.
In July, the Board of Supervisors agreed to a $15 million settlement with the family of Elisa Serna, who died in the Las Colinas women’s jail after being denied proper medical treatment — much like Granillo, whose family also is suing San Diego County.
Three months later, county supervisors approved a nearly $5 million payment to the family of Michael Wilson, who was denied heart medication even though a judge and Wilson’s family repeatedly told deputies he needed the medication to survive.
The state audit Montgomery Steppe cited in her letter was prompted by a six-month Union-Tribune investigation published in 2019.
The series exposed a years-long history of neglect and abuse inside San Diego County jails that contributed to some 140 deaths in the 10 years between 2009 and 2019, and numerous injuries or illnesses that could have been prevented.
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