16th inmate dies in Riverside County jail, continuing deadliest year
A woman died in a Riverside County jail Sunday — the 16th inmate to die in the county's custody in 2022, which has become the system's deadliest year in recent history.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department reported that a woman was found unresponsive in a jail cell at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside around 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 20. First responders provided medical treatment but the woman was pronounced dead just after 4 p.m.
The department has not publicly identified her and stated in the press release that "there are no signs of foul play."
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This year has set a record for deaths in the county's jails, according to data kept by the California Department of Justice going back to 2005. Riverside County had not previously reported more than 12 deaths in a year over that time. At least one inmate has died each month since April.
The Desert Sun previously reported that the sheriff's department did not notify the Department of Justice of several deaths within the timeline required by California law. And when the department did, several inmates were reported as having been sentenced, when, in fact, none of them had been.
San Diego County has also reported a record number of deaths in its jails this year, 19, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The California State Auditor released a report this year expressing significant concern about the number of deaths in that county and urging the sheriff's department there to take corrective action. Riverside County has not been subject to the same scrutiny even as its rate of jail deaths is nearly the same.
San Diego County's eight jails have a capacity of just more than 6,100 inmates, according to data from the California Board of State and Community Corrections, while Riverside County's five jails have a capacity of about 4,900. Both counties have about 3 deaths per 1,000 inmates this year, while San Diego County has about 800,000 more residents than Riverside.
Several families of people who have died in the jails this year have asked state agencies to investigate the deaths and demanded greater department transparency about their causes and what the sheriff's doing to address them.
Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Riverside County jails have most deaths in 2 decades
