After a 182% increase in in-custody deaths over a 10-year period, the number of people who died in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department dropped nearly 58% from 2021 through 2024, according to a report released Friday, Sept. 12.
In its report “Riverside Lives Lost,” the nonprofit Care First California — a coalition of community organizations that advocates for carceral reforms — categorized in-custody deaths as those occurring during arrest, while a detainee was en route to jail and in jail. Data was gleaned from the state Department of Justice and Board of State and Community Corrections.
From 2012 through 2024, 251 people — an average of 19 a year — died in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Ninety-three percent of those who died had unresolved cases, including 87 inmates who were awaiting trial at the time they died, according to the report.
The report was produced in collaboration with two community groups, Riverside Sheriff Accountability Coalition and No More Deaths in Custody.
Despite an average jail population of 3,752, the number of in-custody deaths increased by 182% from 2012 to 2021, the year with the highest number of reported deaths (33). And from 2014 through 2022, the pretrial population in the Riverside County jail system increased 89%, according to the report.
However, the number of in-custody deaths dropped by 58% from 2021 to 2024, according to the report.
Asked why he thought the numbers declined so much in that four-year period and whether it was an indicator that the Sheriff’s Department was making significant progress, Luis Nolasco, senior policy advocate and organizer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said it was difficult to say.
He said a state Department of Justice investigation into the department launched in February 2023 and new laws limiting police deadly force and increasing police accountability could factor into the decline. Additionally, the proliferation and accessibility of Narcan use in county jails can also be a driving factor in the decline, Nolasco said.
“We will need to look at the coming years’ numbers to truly determine if that drop is a meaningful one, or merely anomalies,” Nolasco said.” Also, while it is hard to quantify, we hope that the growing attention to the issue has hopefully put added pressures on the department to do right by those in their custody, be it jail or process of arrest.”
Sheriff Chad Bianco said the spike in fentanyl-related deaths in the jails prompted department-wide staff training in the use of Narcan, which can quickly resuscitate those who overdose on fentanyl and other drugs, in all the jails. He said it has resulted in a significant decline in fentanyl overdoses in the jails.
Care First and its partner community groups calculated its percentages by taking the total number of deaths reported to the state Department of Justice, dividing them by the annual average daily jail population, then multiplying by 1,000.
The report also noted that approximately 41% of all people detained in Riverside County jails had open mental health cases, yet the Sheriff’s Department has still, after 10 years, failed to reach full compliance with a court-monitored decree in which the department agreed to, among other things, provide adequate mental health care to inmates to settle a class-action lawsuit, according to the report.
“Amidst its 10-year lifespan, the courts have yet to find satisfactory conditions regarding the administration of mental health services in its custodial settings,” the report states.
A spate of jail deaths in 2022 and 2023 prompted a wave of wrongful death lawsuits and an attack on Bianco and the county’s correctional system by family members, civil rights groups and the state attorney general’s office, which launched a civil rights investigation into the department in February 2023 amid “concerning levels of in-custody deaths, troubling allegations of excessive force, and other misconduct.”
But long before then, the county had been grappling with civil rights lawsuits involving the Sheriff’s Department and paying out millions to settle cases. From 2014 to 2024, Riverside County paid nearly $100 million in settlements related to the Sheriff’s Department, according to the report.
Efforts to impose stronger oversight on the Sheriff’s Department have faltered. In March 2024, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors considered separating the coroner’s office from the sheriff’s department — a change advocates say would reduce conflicts of interest when investigating in-custody deaths. The board declined, opting instead to outsource some autopsies and create a family liaison position within the Sheriff’s Department.
In July 2025, the Board of Supervisors rejected a motion to create ad hoc committee to consider establishing a sheriff’s oversight committee and office of inspector general, frustrating reform advocates who argue that transparency is long overdue.
Riverside County Supervisor Jose Medina, who brought the proposal before the board, said the fight is not over, and he will continue to push for the oversight commission and office of inspector general.
Lisa Matus, a member of the Riverside Sheriff Accountability Coalition whose 29-year-old son, Richard Matus Jr., was among seven inmates to die of fentanyl poisoning in the Riverside County jail system in 2022, said she and other family members of those who died in sheriff’s custody formed the coalition and began pushing for a civilian oversight committee and county office of inspector general after their letters to Bianco, District Attorney Mike Hestrin and the Board of State and Community Correction went unaddressed.
“There were just too many unanswered questions and deaths that shouldn’t have happened,” Matus said. “The majority of deaths were preventable had they been doing their job. And no one has ever been held accountable, especially in Riverside County.”
Bianco, a gubernatorial candidate, has repeatedly defended the way his jails are run, and said the Riverside County corrections system is used by the state as a model for corrections. He has called the DOJ investigation meritless, with no findings produced after two years and counting.
He gave no credibility to Care First’s report, calling it a “completely biased, anti-law enforcement … activist hit piece.”
“These groups met in 2021/2022 and planned these media attacks for future elections,” Bianco said Friday. “This is exactly what Californians and Americans are sick of.”
The report also points to the fiscal toll of Riverside County’s carceral system. In the 2025 county budget, 23% — about $2.2 billion — was allocated to the criminal legal system. Public safety accounted for 63% of the discretionary budget, more than the combined spending on education, mental health, public health, and substance use services.
Care First will issue a separate, updated report on San Bernardino County at a later date.
