A 38-year-old inmate died in custody following a medical emergency at a Southern California jail, authorities announced Wednesday.

Corrections staff and jail medical personnel responded to one of the day rooms at the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta after deputies reported the emergency Tuesday, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

A 19-year-old inmate found unresponsive inside a housing cell at the Robert Presley Detention Center died in an apparent suicide, authorities announced Friday.

BANNING, Calif. (KESQ) - A 46-year-old felon awaiting trial on arson and other charges died in his jail cell in Banning today, but authorities said there was no indication of foul play.   

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The First Amendment Coalition has filed a lawsuit against Riverside County for violating state law by refusing to release public records and information sought by investigative journalist Christopher Damien about deaths in jail custody.

“When people die in the government’s custody, their relatives and the public have the right to review the government’s investigation of that death,” said Damien. “The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has withheld details about these investigations for far too long. California law is clear: These are public records.”

Families of people who died in Riverside County jails are pushing for independent oversight of the Sheriff’s Department, while pointing to over $100 million in taxpayer-funded settlements and a disturbing surge of in-custody deaths.

One answer activists with the Riverside Sheriff’s Accountability Coalition (RSAC) are pushing, is the plan to skip the Board of Supervisors entirely, and go straight for a ballot initiative and the community to force real change.

“Truth matters”—at least that’s what Sheriff Bianco claimed last week when he dismissed oversight as “pro-criminal.” But the truth he refuses to face is the one Riverside County lives with every day: a sheriff who smears grieving families as “anti-law enforcement,” dismisses data when it doesn’t serve him. While he denies and distorts reality: every Riverside County resident is still living with the fallout of leading the nation in in-custody deaths in 2022, and the continuing deaths, lawsuits, and misconduct that show how deeply the system is failing.

The groups are 'united by the simple belief that public safety must be accountable to the public it serves,' said one activist

A coalition of Riverside County advocacy groups wants voters to decide whether an independent sheriff's accountability committee should be established to provide civilians an opportunity to investigate jail deaths, possible misconduct and propose changes.

A man who was denied medical care for 12 hours after being assaulted in a Riverside County jail required two emergency surgeries when finally taken to the hospital, to treat a severe infection and remove an organ, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

The children of a man who died last year after spending a month in Riverside County Sheriff’s Department custody sued Sheriff Chad Bianco and his staff, claiming he was not provided with timely emergency medical treatment.

A test took place July 29 in downtown Riverside.

It didn’t involve pens, paper or classrooms. Instead, the test at the daylong Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting measured the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association’s influence.

In the end, the union representing thousands of sheriff’s deputies won. Three supervisors — Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez left the meeting early — declined to advance Supervisor Jose Medina’s plan for greater oversight of the county Sheriff’s Department.

For frustrated criminal justice reform advocates, the supervisors’ actions, or lack thereof, prove money — specifically, what’s spent by the union on campaign donations to supervisors — speaks louder than the will of the people.

A scathing report released this week revealed that the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department cleared only 9.2% of its violent crimes and property offenses during Sheriff Chad Bianco’s first six years in office, ranking the agency’s clearance rate last among 57 California sheriffs.