Amid ongoing scrutiny concerning the county’s unusually excessive fee of in-custody deaths, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office has launched the trigger and method of loss of life of an inmate who died earlier this yr after struggling a medical emergency.
According to a Wednesday launch from the division, shortly after 3 p.m. on Aug. 30, fellow inmates on the San Diego Central Jail advised deputies that 35-year-old Steven Curren was in medical misery.
Deputies discovered Curren unresponsive, referred to as 911, started life-saving measures and summoned jail medical workers, the division stated. Curren was taken to an area hospital, the place he was pronounced lifeless at about 4:31 p.m.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s workplace later decided Curren had died of pure causes attributable to issues of hypertensive heart problems in his proper kidney, which was congenitally underdeveloped and smaller than regular. Asthma, persistent alcohol use, and weight problems had been listed as contributing situations.
Curren had been booked into sheriff’s custody on Aug. 29 on suspicion of auto theft and possession of stolen property.
“The San Diego Sheriff’s Office extends sympathies to the Curren family and all those affected by his passing,” the division stated, including {that a} sheriff’s household liaison officer will proceed to help his family.
As is protocol for all in-custody deaths, the sheriff’s Homicide Unit responded and is conducting a full investigation to overview all features of the incident. The Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board was additionally notified.
The Sheriff’s Office, which runs the county’s jails, has been below scrutiny for years due its unusually excessive variety of in-custody deaths.
In 2022, the California State Auditor’s Office discovered “deficiencies with how the (county agency) provides care for and protects incarcerated individuals (that) likely contributed to in-custody deaths.” That audit examined 185 deaths throughout the San Diego-area jail system from 2006 via 2020, a fee that exceeded all of California’s different massive counties throughout the identical interval.
Nineteen in-custody deaths occurred within the county in 2022 alone, and one other six came about in 2023.
The Sheriff’s Office has dedicated to a $500 million effort to modernize and improve its jails, however critics have questioned whether or not these efforts have been adequate to deal with the issue of custody deaths.