Riverside County Sheriff and Coroner to be Separated - Governor Signs Senate Bill 1379 by Senator Sabrina Cervantes

(SACRAMENTO) – Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1379 by Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside). The new law will require the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to separate the offices of county sheriff and coroner by July 1, 2027, and establish an independent office of the medical examiner. SB 1379 also creates clear requirements for the county to publicly report information regarding in-custody deaths on its website.

“Senate Bill 1379—which is a targeted solution to fix a long-broken system in my home county of Riverside—has been a long time coming. The goal of this new law is simple: When an individual dies in custody in a Riverside County jail, their family and the public deserve transparency,” Senator Cervantes explained. “We owe the families the truth; we owe our communities accountability; and we owe county taxpayers a system they can trust.”

“Thank you to Senator Sabrina Cervantes and Governor Gavin Newsom for standing with Riverside County residents by enacting SB 1379. Removing the conflict of interest created when the Sheriff also oversees in-custody death determinations is a significant victory for transparency, accountability, and justice—and a vital step toward supporting families seeking answers after the death of a loved one in custody,” said Chani Beeman, member of the Riverside Sheriff Accountability Coalition. 

Existing law allows counties to consolidate the offices of sheriff and coroner. When these offices are combined, the same department responsible for operating county jails is also responsible for investigating and determining the cause and manner of deaths in those jails. In Riverside County, this structure creates an inherent conflict of interest and has contributed to longstanding issues that undermine transparency, accountability, and public trust.

The need for reform in Riverside County is clear and convincing. According to the Inland Empire Lives Lost report by Care First California, 226 individuals died in custody in Riverside County jails between 2011 and 2022. During that period, Riverside County accounted for approximately 10 percent of all in-custody deaths in California despite comprising only about 6 percent of the state's population. Data from the Department of Justice's Open Justice Data Portal shows 43 percent of individuals who died in custody in Riverside County were Latino, while the statewide share of in-custody deaths among Latinos was 32 percent.

In 2024, a CalMatters investigation into in-custody deaths in Riverside County jails concluded that “[some] of the state’s deadliest jails are in Riverside County and…45 people…have died in lockup there since Jan. 1, 2021.” A 2025 New York Times article declared that the number of deaths in Riverside County jails from 2020 to 2023 made its jail system “the second deadliest in the nation during that period. The inherent lack of transparency in Riverside County has left families of loved ones who have died in county jails with few answers, leaving them with few options to seek justice through the courts. Between 2014 and 2024, in-custody deaths in Riverside County have resulted in nearly $100 million in settlements paid for by county taxpayers. Community organizations, including the Riverside Sheriff Accountability Coalition, have organized to demand structural change, including separating the office of sheriff and coroner.

In 2024, Riverside County commissioned an internal audit that argued against separating the offices of sheriff and coroner. However, having the county investigate its own jail system and coroner’s office created serious barriers to preventing conflicts of interest and preserving any ability to engage in objective analysis. That is why a report by academics at Carceral Ecologies Lab—including Professor Nicholas Shapiro at UCLA—criticized the audit, saying that “Riverside County’s decision to conduct the audit internally may have undermined the quality and integrity of the audit if the County’s evaluators were less inclined to identify shortcomings of their Sheriff-Coroner’s Office, as doing so may reflect poorly on the Office and County or raise internal conflict.” Unfortunately, the Board of Supervisors heeded the request of the current occupant of the office of Sheriff-Coroner and elected not to separate the offices.

After separating the offices of county sheriff and coroner, the Board of Supervisors would be required to appoint a county medical examiner who must be a licensed physician and surgeon qualified as a specialist in pathology. SB 1379 would also require Riverside County to post an initial incident report on its website within 24 hours of the occurrence of an in-custody death, and a preliminary report on its website within 72 hours. The County would also be required to notify the individual’s next-of-kin regarding the cause of death within 72 hours of the determination of the cause.

“I want to thank all of the community members in the Inland Empire who have advocated tirelessly for the reforms SB 1379 provides, and to Governor Newsom for signing the bill into law so we can finally chart our path forward toward truth and justice,” Senator Cervantes concluded.

You can read more about Senate Bill 1379 here. 

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