California agency tasked with scrutinizing jail deaths hasn’t completed a single review

A state office created in 2024 to scrutinize local investigations into jail deaths has yet to complete a single review of the more than 150 people who have died in custody in California’s county jails over the past year-and-a-half.

That’s because it hasn’t received the records needed to fully analyze the deaths, according to the Board of State and Community Corrections, a regulatory body appointed by the governor to oversee the state’s jails and juvenile halls.

SB 519, signed into law in October 2023...