Surge in LA County jail deaths this year prompts call for major reforms

Ten people have already died in Los Angeles County’s jails since the start of the year, putting the average at one death every five days and well ahead of the total by this time last year.

Th county ended 2025 with 46 in-custody deaths, marking it as the second deadliest year in the last two decades. If the current trend were to hold for the rest of this year, roughly 73 inmates would die by Dec. 31.

The causes for all of the deaths in 2026 are still pending autopsies. Those who have died are all male and range from 26 to 85 years old. The criminal cases against eight of the 10 were still in progress, according to data released by the Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff Robert Luna speaking at the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission meeting Thursday, Feb. 19, stated the majority of people who have died in his department’s care “have passed of natural causes.”

While it is unclear if that is true for this year, it is the case for prior years, though whether “natural” is an accurate description for such deaths is a frequently debated topic.

“I recognize that every number that I talk about is an individual who has passed and a family that’s been impacted,” Luna said, acknowledging the jails are a “tough environment” and not a “perfect system.”

In light of the deaths, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn is now expected to bring forward a motion for major reforms at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting March 3.

A draft of the motion calls for:

• All individuals, including employees, to be “consistently screened for narcotics and other prohibited items” when entering the jails.
• Higher quality safety checks, at random and less predictable intervals, that ensure “staff are taking the appropriate time to thoroughly assess for “signs of life” before moving to the next cell.
• An evaluation of whether other staff, such as custody assistants, could assist with safety checks.
• Consistent monitoring and maintenance of closed-circuit security cameras.
• A plan to expedite compassionate releases and to ensure overdose-reversing medications are more readily available.
• Daily walk-throughs by Correctional Health Services so nonemergency health request forms can be submitted more quickly.
• Development of electronic systems to request health services and to monitor medical appointments.
• Increased funding for Medication Assisted Treatment in the jails.
• Closer monitoring of inmates’ court cases to flag potential suicide risks.
• A review of five years of data to identify the “top repeated” factors in deaths, as well as annual audits of the corrective action plans developed following death reviews.

The motion follows an evaluation last year by the Chief Executive Office and the auditor-controller. That review found several factors had contributed to the rise in deaths, including an increase in the jail population from Proposition 36, a lack of medical care for inmates prior to entering the jails, an increase in the age of the jail population and the increased use of fentanyl.

The Justice LA Coalition, which includes affected families, the ACLU of Southern California, the UCLA BioCritical Studies Lab, and Dignity and Power, among others, worked with Hahn’s office on the motion.

The county has spent millions of dollars on settlements and judgments linked to jail deaths that could have gone instead to housing, social services, and prevention and intervention programs, Hahn’s motion states.

“Simply stating that the population is ‘older and sicker’ without changing our health approach; underinvesting in investigations and security of staff to limit the number of illicit drugs and narcotics entering the facilities; lax discipline, training, and accountability of all staff involved in the care and custody of people who are incarcerated; and other unresolved factors will not address how people die in our jails, rather we will see the upward trend — one we have seen, one we are too familiar with, and one we should demand to fix,” Hahn wrote.

More than 250 people have died in L.A. County’s custody since 2020.

Last year, Terence Keel, director of the UCLA BioCritical Studies Lab, released a report that found no correlation between increases in mental health populations in the jails and rates of suicide. The average age of those who died from natural causes actually decreased from 57 in 2023 to 52 1/2 in 2025, according to the report.

By comparison, Centers for Disease Control data for L.A. County indicates the highest proportion of nonviolent deaths occurs from 80 to 89 for the general population, the report states.

“The evidence suggests systemic issues may be contributing to the crisis, particularly given that inmates are dying at younger ages than the general population.” Keel wrote.

Families and advocates have frequently blamed conditions inside the jails for the deaths of their loved ones.

Last year, the Southern California News Group analyzed more than a thousand pages of lawsuits, audits, coroner reports and investigative reviews related to in-custody deaths. The review found that someone died in custody in the jails of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties every five days on average and detailed instances of institutional neglect and failed supervision.

In one example, a 61-year-old man was listed as dying of “multiple organ failure” and heart disease in March 2023 by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, yet a review by an oversight agency found that he had presented with hypothermia and a body temperature of 87.6 degrees after heating systems failed in Los Angeles’ downtown jails.

The California Department of Justice sued Los Angeles County in September over what Attorney General Rob Bonta described as “unsafe and unconstitutional conditions.”

Family members of 26-year-old Carlos Ramirez, the last in-custody death of 2025, pleaded for answers about Ramirez’s death at the Civilian Oversight Commission’s meeting Thursday. They asked why Ramirez’s mother was forcefully removed from her son’s hospital room just hours before he died, but were unable to get an answer from those present.

Ramirez’s cause of death is listed as natural from complications relating to leukemia, according to the L.A. County Medical Examiner.

The family members said Ramirez’s cancer was improving prior to his arrest. Once inside the jails, he stopped receiving the medications he needed, they said. He was putting in requests to see a doctor for months and was transferred to the hospital a week before his death.

“Unfortunately, because of the neglect from the jail, from the sheriffs, my brother passed away,” said his sister, Vanessa.

Though many deaths are marked as natural, there is nothing natural about dying in the jails, according to Haley Broder, chair of the Sybil Brand Commission, an oversight body that conducts regular jail inspections.

The inspections continue to find visible black mold, dirt and grime and other “disgusting” conditions inside the facilities, including inmates forced to urinate in bottles and medical request forms that go unanswered, she said.

“Every time we go in, we hear somebody has had a broken wrist for six months and has submitted tons and tons of medical requests with no response,” she said. “We are very, very concerned about the conditions in the jails.”

Broder also raised concerns about drugs entering the jails and noted that she walks into the facilities without getting searched and often sees others, such as custodial staff, passing through security unchallenged.

In response, Assistant Sheriff Hugo Macias, who oversees custody operations, told the commission that the county is instituting airport-style screenings for all employees and, in the future, inmates will receive tablets with scanned copies of their mail to avoid the possibility of paper laced with drugs entering the system.

At the meeting, Ed Matzen, chief nursing officer for the jail system, also echoed the need for a unified and more efficient electronic system that tracks medical requests, approvals, denials and completion times. He described the current system as one that can experience delays due to the daisy chain of humans the paperwork must pass through.

The Civilian Oversight Commission will revisit the topic of jail deaths at its next meeting in March and is hosting a forum on the topic in April, according to the Chair Hans Johnson.