‘They know what’s happening’: Kern County is among one of the counties in the state with high amount of in-custody deaths

Mikhala Armstrong
·2 min read
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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The number of jail deaths is rising even as the number of people in them continues to decrease, and Kern County is among one of the counties in the state setting in custody death records.

According to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, a 53-year-old white man and a 30-year-old Hispanic woman died while in-custody, the first two reported this year. Their deaths are pending further investigation.

Marcella Rosen of Care First California, a coalition that collects data on in-custody deaths in California, said Kern is one of the most problematic counties.

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“Los Angeles — in the last 10 years — they’ve had over 500 deaths, now Kern County has had over 100 deaths in the last 10 years and when you consider the difference in their population size that means Kern is experiencing deaths at a higher per capita rate based on their population,” Rosen. “So, Kern is really a dangerous county in that way.”

According to the KCSO In-custody Death Reporting, there were 11 in-custody deaths last year.

“It speaks volumes about what’s going on in the Kern County jail system,” said Civil Rights Attorney Greg Kirakosian.

Attorney Greg Kirakosian represented the family of a man who died in KCSO custody, 34-year-old Shai Rogers. The family alleges County officers failed to provide emergency and medical care to Rogers when he tried to commit suicide, alleging no one acted to save him for more than eight minutes.

“It’s almost they know what’s happening … it’s happening in front of their faces and they’re not going to lift a finger to save anybody in those facilities,” said Kirakosian.

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The case is still awaiting trial, but Kirakosian said inmates deserve to have justice too.

“We’re representing people who are inmates and that comes with a certain sort of bias, they’re inmates and they’re suicidal, so do we really care about them? And I think over time the answer from communities is a resounding yes, we do care,” said Kirakosian.

We did reach out to KCSO and were not able to get them to speak with us on the issue.

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