After a 182% increase in in-custody deaths over a 10-year period, the number of people who died in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department dropped nearly 58% from 2021 through 2024, according to a report released Friday, Sept. 12.

In its report “Riverside Lives Lost,” the nonprofit Care First California — a coalition of community organizations that advocates for carceral reforms — categorized in-custody deaths as those occurring during arrest, while a detainee was en route to jail and in jail. Data was gleaned from the state Department of Justice and Board of State and Community Corrections.

From 2012 through 2024, 251 people — an average of 19 a year — died in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Ninety-three percent of those who died had unresolved

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