Clash of Local Titans: County Officials vs. Sheriffs — Proposed California Legislation a Solution?

Highlighted Stories

Editor's Note

At COCHS, we often debate the right subject line for each Weekly Update—something that captures our subscribers’ attention. We hope this week’s does, because what may appear to be dry legislation reflects a fundamental tension seen nationwide: counties are financially responsible for jail conditions while often having limited authority over how those jails are run.

Assemblymember Gregg Hart has introduced AB 2257, which would allow counties to continue with sheriff-operated jails or appoint an alternative official to oversee operations when improved administration is needed. At its core, the bill would partially reverse Senate Bill 911 (1993), which granted elected sheriffs sole authority over county jails. As the many articles we have highlighted on in-custody deaths, lawsuits, and allegations of deliberate indifference and inadequate medical care demonstrate, counties often bear the financial consequences of poor outcomes—costs that can strain budgets and divert resources from other services. As Hart noted, county supervisors are often left “writing blank checks while jail issues persist.” The bill seeks to introduce greater accountability and restore a measure of checks and balances.

That said, the balance of responsibility is not entirely one-sided. As the Weekly Update has frequently shown, counties themselves have played a role in shaping current conditions, often approving contracts with proprietary correctional healthcare providers in an effort to control costs, decisions that have at times led to costly litigation. For example, Santa Cruz County supervisors in 2012, decided to privatize healthcare in its jail (admittedly at the recommendation of the sheriff) by hiring California Forensic Medical Group (later part of Wellpath). A subsequent grand jury report called for stronger oversight of the provider after conducting an investigation of five deaths at the jail.

So this tug of war between counties and sheriffs is far less black and white, and AB 2257 will likely face significant debate as it moves through the legislative process. As always, COCHS will continue to follow these developments. At the same time, we remain as always cautious about solutions that rely solely on correctional oversight structures. As we have emphasized, integrating Medicaid into correctional settings may offer a more consistent framework for accountability—one less dependent on the shifting balance of authority between local actors.

AB 2257

Assemblymember Gregg Hart introduced AB 2257 to strengthen accountability and restore checks and balances in the governance of California’s county jails. AB 2257 will give counties the option to maintain sheriff-run jails or appoint an official other than the sheriff to operate the county jail system, if warranted by the need for improved jail operations and administration. The bill restores local choice in jail governance — a flexibility counties had prior to 1993. “California’s county jails are in crisis,” said Assemblymember Hart. Since the passage of Senate Bill 911 in 1993, elected sheriffs have held sole and exclusive authority over the operation of county jails. At the same time, county boards of supervisors have remained legally obligated to fund those jails — without authority to compel needed changes. This structural imbalance has created a governance model with limited checks and balances.

A newly proposed state law would let local elected officials across all 58 California counties strip control of jails from sheriffs and shift operations to civilian authority. If it becomes law, AB 2257 could further exacerbate tensions between Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown and the board of supervisors who earlier this month questioned law enforcement overtime costs—following public scrutiny in recent months and years focused on jail budget overruns and inmate deaths described as preventable.

Follow Ups

YesCare/Tehum Care/Corizon

Editor's Comment: Oh boy! In a highlighted article from February 10, 2026, it appeared that YesCare/Tehum Care/Corizon had reached an agreement to cure its payment defaults with creditors. However, the article below suggests that the company is now in default on that very settlement. If the default is not cured by March 4 (tomorrow), it risks losing bankruptcy protection. For a fuller account of this ongoing saga, see this recent Editor’s Note.

Defunct prison health-care company Tehum Care Services Inc.'s former insiders and affiliates, including YesCare Corp., have allegedly missed a settlement payment to creditors after failing to make several others in recent months, risking a wave of renewed litigation. The $2 million payment, due Feb. 17, was to be distributed to two trusts for unsecured creditors and personal injury and wrongful death claimants, according to a Wednesday notice filed by the trusts’ lawyers in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. If the alleged default isn’t fixed by March 4, legal protections created by Tehum’s Chapter 11 plan would be terminated.

Receivership

Editor's Comment: Blowback has followed Judge Roslyn Silver’s decision to place healthcare at the Arizona Department of Correction into receivership, discussed in last week’s Editor’s Note. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has pointed to the state’s $1 billion investment in healthcare improvements. But money alone may not be the issue. The court still found significant gaps—enough to warrant a federal takeover. The additional articles in this Follow Up point to a broader pattern: substantial spending does not necessarily translate into meaningful improvement.

The second article, from Illinois, illustrates this dynamic. The state has been under orders for years to improve healthcare delivery, yet measurable progress appears limited. Wexford, the Illinois Department of Corrections’ healthcare provider, holds a $4 billion contract. Even at that scale, investment has not reliably produced better outcomes—echoing money spent not being a reliable barometer for outcomes.

The difficulty of reform is further underscored by Oregon. Earlier this year, the Weekly Update noted progress following recommendations from Falcon Correction and Community Services. Yet recent findings from NCCHC indicate that the state’s women’s facility still fails to meet standards. As one advocate put it, “it was more of the same.”

On a more constructive note, following last week’s discussion of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) mental health receivership, the Legislative Analyst’s Office has issued a report focused on addressing chronic staffing shortages—one of the system’s central challenges.

Taken together, these stories suggest that the question is not simply how much is being spent, but whether systems are structured to deliver effective care. In that context, continued complaints about cost may be less useful than a clear focus on what actually produces change.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs sharply criticized U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver's decision to seize control of health care operations in the state’s prisons, calling the ruling costly, unnecessary and dismissive of recent improvements. "Over the past three years, we’ve made over $1 billion in historic investments to improve health care, staffing and programming,” the governor explained. Judge Silver found that despite new investments, the system continued to exhibit chronic deficiencies, including inadequate staffing levels, delayed emergency care and continuing risks that she said the department has not effectively addressed.

Despite being under a consent decree, or court-enforceable settlement agreement, to improve health care since 2019. The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) continues to fail to provide adequate medical and dental care to incarcerated people, according to reports from an independent court-appointed monitor. IDOC’s private vendors are also a part of the problem, like its longtime health care provider Wexford Health Sources, said Meurer and Reed. More than half of prison medical staff are employed by a vendor, according to the monitor. For years, Wexford, a private, for-profit company, faced accusations of poor care, neglect and preventable deaths. In previous reports, the court monitor also found serious deficiencies in Wexford’s practices and documented deaths from substandard medical care.

A year after Oregon prison officials pledged to overhaul health services, an inspection by a national accrediting group found the women’s correctional facility still isn’t meeting standards. During a September visit, inspectors found administrators weren’t ensuring prisoners are healthy enough to work, nurses’ competencies weren’t reviewed annually and that staff lacked training needed to respond to medical needs. The report also cited delayed documentation of a prisoner’s death. But Angela Kim, a legal assistant with the nonprofit law firm Oregon Justice Resource Center, called the latest report “kind of more of the same,” and said updating processes in the prison health system isn’t enough to improve prisoners’ care.

This report provides an overview of why the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR’s) mental health system was placed into receivership, citing an inability to maintain adequate staffing levels. It also discusses current efforts to address chronic mental health vacancies. The report recommends five strategies to address these gaps: (1) increasing compensation, (2) extending licensing exemptions to providers with out-of-state licenses, (3) expanding the use of tele-mental health, (4) clustering patients in facilities that are easier to staff, and (5) reducing excess inpatient capacity. Subsequent sections describe and assess each option.

Sovereign Immunity

Editor's Comment: Back in November, we highlighted a case, in which GEO Group argued before the Supreme Court that it should be granted sovereign immunity after allegedly forcing ICE detainees to work in violation of both Colorado and federal law. GEO Group claimed it was simply carrying out directives from ICE and therefore should share in the government’s immunity. At the time, the justices appeared skeptical, and as the article below reports, the Court has now rejected that argument.

What was particularly striking about GEO’s position is the implication that privatizing governmental functions could extend sovereign immunity to private actors. That line of reasoning raises broader concerns about accountability, suggesting that when core government responsibilities are outsourced, legal protections meant for the state could be used to shield private companies from liability.

A long-running lawsuit claiming that a private prison contractor broke federal and Colorado law by forcing immigration detainees to work moved closer to trial Wednesday after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a bid by the company to toss out the case. The contractor, GEO Group, asserted it was entitled to immunity and should not face a civil trial because the firm’s detainee work policies were carried out at the direction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, the justices said the degree to which federal officials authorized the detention center’s work program was an issue that could be hashed out at trial. the justices said the company was not entitled to pre-empt the lawsuit by claiming a form of immunity flowing from or “derivative” of the federal government’s sovereign immunity.

New York

Editor's Comment: New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has yet to return to normal operations. Ongoing staffing shortages following last year’s wildcat strike have required the continued use of National Guard members as correctional officers.

Less attention has been paid to the situation at the Bedford Hills women’s prison, which, like many men’s facilities, has a documented history of violence. Recent reporting suggests conditions there may be worsening, particularly with the arrival of a deputy superintendent transferred from Sing Sing who is alleged to have his own history of abusive conduct.

New York’s troubled prison system still has the same number of vacancies as it did a year ago, when thousands of officers walked off the job in an illegal three-week strike. As a result, there are no plans to draw down roughly 3,000 National Guard troops still stationed in prisons around the state. Lawmakers said during the hearing that they’re wary of the extra costs associated with the ongoing shortage, which have already topped $1 billion.

People incarcerated at one of the nation's most dangerous women's prisons are urging officials to remove a new security official with a decadeslong history of violence who they say has already violated state and federal laws meant to protect incarcerated people from abuse. Women inside the maximum security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York have for months raised the alarm over deputy superintendent of safety Michael Blot, who arrived last summer from Sing Sing Correctional Facility — a maximum security men's prison that people inside call "a war zone." Advocates say Blot's personal history of violence is especially concerning given Bedford Hills' documented record of abuse. Among the most criticized of his new policies are severe shower restrictions that women say have created unsanitary and unsafe conditions, with some reporting they've gone days without showers or resorted to buckets of hot water when shower slots are unavailable.

ICE

Four House Democrats demanded the top Federal Bureau of Prisons official explain how he plans to address the agency’s “persistent, unsafe conditions” and “pervasive shortage of critical staff,” driven in part by corrections officers fleeing the bureau for more lucrative jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The representatives said that short staffing, in turn, has led to more lockdowns, more violence and less access to recidivism-reducing programs for prisoners.

In a show of complete disregard for human rights or the civil rights afforded to immigrants under the U.S. Constitution, the White House’s weaponized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is flooding its own infrastructure, pushing it to the brink of failure. Every detention center is currently facing a critical breakdown due to a 75% surge in the detained population in 2025, which has reached a record high of over 73,000 individuals today. This rapid expansion has overwhelmed the system’s infrastructure with less oversight.

The federal government confirmed this week that it intends to convert a shuttered Arizona state prison into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prison, substantiating concerns that community members and state leaders have been warning about for months. The department posted a notice to award a sole-source contract to Management and Training Corporation (MTC) to run an immigration detention facility in the Marana prison. The memo was released just days after U.S. representatives Adelita Grijalva, Greg Stanton and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to the DHS demanding answers regarding the facility’s future use.

Congresswoman Adelita S. Grijalva released the following statement after ICE published a sole-source agreement with Management and Training Corporation, a private for-profit company, to provide detention services at a former state prison in Marana, Arizona: “I am deeply concerned by the Trump Administration’s rush to open this facility with zero transparency or community input. Let’s be clear: detention expansion is a money-making machine for the private prison industry. Arbitrary deportation quotas mean more beds, bigger contracts, and more profits for companies that have poured millions into Trump’s campaign. Time and again, these facilities have operated with too little oversight and accountability – with devastating human consequences, including dozens of deaths in custody.”

According to the ACLU, three pregnant women reported ICE agents using restraints, such as shackling, even as the women were having a miscarriage; one pregnant woman said she had been held in solitary confinement for days; two women reported medical interventions without informed consent or appropriate translation services; and almost all women interviewed talked about inadequate or denial of prenatal care, medical neglect from health professionals, and limited nutrition and medications, including prenatal vitamins.

Pregnancy

Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), and Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) introduced the Ensuring OBGYN Care in Prisons Act, which would require all Bureau of Prisons facilities with female populations to employ at least one full-time, on-site Obstetrician Gynecologist. The legislation responds to widespread evidence of inadequate and dangerous reproductive health care in correctional settings. In July 2025, the Birth in Jails Media Project at Johns Hopkins University found that two-thirds of jail births between 2013 and 2023 occurred inside jail cells, and one quarter of those births were stillborn or resulted in death within two weeks. While federal prisons and local jails differ in jurisdiction, these findings shed light on broader systemic failures in the treatment of pregnant people across the justice system.

Amy Hicks was 7 ½ months pregnant and convicted of an illegal drug offense that would keep her behind bars for months to come. Still, as Hicks waited inside that transitional cellblock of the Logan Correctional Center women’s prison, she thought she’d give birth to her daughter when she was ready to be born. Other inmates warned Hicks that the prison would force her delivery through an induction of labor, a procedure typically reserved for medical necessities, none of which applied to her, she said. Depressed and worried, she filed grievances objecting to what she believed would be a forced medical intervention. But two weeks before her due date, in early 2024, Hicks underwent the induction. Hicks’ account forms the basis of a federal lawsuit against Gov. JB Pritzker’s Illinois Department of Corrections, the prison’s medical provider, Wexford Health Sources, and others.

Juveniles

A federal lawsuit challenging solitary confinement in North Carolina juvenile detention centers could be headed toward a settlement. A court filing asked the judge overseeing the case for time to finalize the deal. John Doe plaintiffs from 15 to 17 years old filed suit against the North Carolina Department of Public Safety in January 2024. They sought class-action status to cover all juveniles housed in DPS detention centers. They alleged that the state kept them and other juveniles in solitary confinement for many hours a day and did not provide basic educational services. They challenged the constitutionality of these practices. Despite the overwhelming consensus that solitary confinement has devastating and long-term effects on juveniles, North Carolina Department of Public Safety has embraced a policy, custom, and practice of solitary confinement of children as young as ten years old.

Teenagers in some North Carolina juvenile detention centers are spending nearly the entire day locked in their cells — sometimes allowed out for only one or two hours — according to a yearlong review of the state’s 13 juvenile detention centers by Disability Rights North Carolina. In a 52-page report the nonprofit legal and advocacy organization outlined wide variation among the state’s juvenile detention centers all overseen by the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The report alleges that most detention centers violate state policies governing their operations, including the use of solitary confinement-like conditions — defined as more than 22 hours a day of isolation — with what it describes as “frequency and normalcy” in five of the facilities.

State Rep. Melissa Shusterman writes: Our current state regulations simply do not adequately protect children. From Wordsworth Academy where a staff member’s improper restraint led to a child’s death, to Philadelphia’s Juvenile Justice Services Center where children experience excessive solitary confinement, Pennsylvania has repeatedly failed to keep children safe in our juvenile legal system. In 2021, Pennsylvania’s bipartisan Juvenile Justice Task Force agreed. It’s been 4½ years since the task force’s report was released, and yet only two of the 35 legislative recommendations have been enacted into law. We must not wait to protect our children.

Studies

This report is a retrospective cross-sectional study of adults in the City and County of San Francisco using a de-identified registry that links physical health, behavioral health, and social services data from the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s (SFDPH) Coordinated Care Management System (CCMS) with county jail system data from San Francisco Sheriff’s office for fiscal years 2011–2021 Of the 11,040 adults with at least one jail booking during the incarceration period, 1568 also had a record in CCMS (14.2%), resulting in a study population with 732 (46.7%) and 836 (53.3%) individuals comprising the SMI and non-SMI groups, respectively.

State Roundup

Alabama

SB 84, sponsored by Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, mandates that the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) inspect and recommend correctional measures in cafeterias and other areas in correctional facilities to ensure they are sanitary. Stutts said he brought the legislation after he learned that Julia Tutweiler Prison for Women located in Elmore County did not have hot water in the kitchen for several weeks. According to the bill, ADPH would have initially have the authority to enforce the existing rules that pertain to food services operated by ADOC and the county and municipal jails to ensure the conditions are sanitary. Afterward, ADPH would establish rules that deal with serving and handling food.

Michigan

Months after a woman in state custody died from a treatable infection, Michigan lawmakers from both parties raised concerns over what they described as systemic failures at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility. During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday morning, state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, said she saw black spots in the seams of the shower room when she visited the women’s correctional facility on Feb. 12. When asked what those spots were, the warden told her it was black paint on clear grout — not mold — and offered to eat it in front of her to prove it was not toxic, Pohutsky told colleagues.

Texas

Some deaths are more natural than others. The death of a frail, elderly inmate who suffers a fatal heart attack while talking to his lawyer at the jail seems nothing like the demise of a previously healthy 30-year-old who collapses and dies of heatstroke after picking up roadside trash for hours in 100-degree heat. Context matters. But a recent opinion from the Texas Attorney General’s Office argues that only the first death requires investigation by an outside law enforcement agency. If an inmate dies of natural causes during transport, while on a work detail, in a courtroom, or at a hospital, there is no need for an independent law enforcement investigation. Since January 2018, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards has required that every in-custody death be reviewed by a law enforcement agency that has no conflict of interest in the case. The rule was sensible and clear. The AG’s opinion slices and dices the phrase, “in a county jail,” for six pages and concludes that sheriffs should take it literally. The best way to describe the opinion is goofy. And pointless, because in the document’s final paragraph, the AG’s office admits it “has no bearing” on actual practice because the Jail Standards Commission rule still stands.

Faced with overcrowded jails, officials in Houston have partnered with prison companies to help manage inmates, sometimes even moving them out of state. Critics say the practice creates a host of new problems. Twenty people died in Harris County jails in 2025, an increase over the previous year. So far this year, there have already been two deaths. These numbers do not include inmates outsourced to other facilities like LaSalle. If those deaths were included, it’s unclear what the full count would be. Currently, Harris County is outsourcing around 1,200 inmates to prisons run by for-profit LaSalle Management Co. for-profit facilities have faced a slew of allegations, including for wrongful death, medical malpractice and neglect.

Rikers Island

Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently unveiled a comprehensive update on the city’s plan to reform both its jail system and migrant shelter operations, aimed at achieving compliance with Board of Correction (BOC) standards and implementing Local Law 42. Local Law 42 of 2024 is a New York City ordinance designed to heavily restrict and essentially ban prolonged solitary confinement in city jails, including Rikers Island. Key elements of the plan include ending 12-hour shifts for all correctional staff by spring 2026, returning to standard eight-hour tours, and developing a strategy by summer 2027 to eliminate commingling—the practice of housing people in custody of all ages together—based on facility assessments and adjustments.

Technology

The ability for incarcerated people to make video calls came via a widely supported 2023 measure allowing tablets in Nevada's prison system. Prison officials promised lawmakers that adopting tablets could reduce recidivism, improve education and medical care, and make it easier to talk to loved ones through a cheaper alternative to phone calls. Now, people in custody, their families and criminal justice reform organizations say that the once-celebrated system has become rife with glitches and prohibitively expensive — so much so that advocates are planning technology boycotts. In 2025, the FCC rolled back caps on the cost of prison and jail phone calls. Advocates are further upset that the state has not implemented bulk or subscription pricing, despite state regulations and the contract with vendor ViaPath allowing for it.

Correctional Health Care Vendors

Wellpath

The Department of Jail Services is asking the Clark County Council (WA) for a two-year extension on its contract with medical vendor WellPath, which provides health services for inmates in the Clark County Jail and the Juvenile Detention Center. The department is also requesting the county increase WellPath’s annual base pay to about $566,305 per month, for a total of $6.8 million annually, and provide another $1.1 million for additional medical staffing at jails. WellPath has amassed more than 1,500 medical malpractice, wrongful death and sexual abuse lawsuits in the last few years. County spokesperson Joni McAnally said the county has limited options to provide constitutionally required medical care to Clark County inmates. Other options, such as contracts with local health care systems or creating an inhouse healthcare system, have various strengths and weaknesses.

YesCare

A 56-year-old Rawlins woman serving 10-15 years in prison is suing the former medical contractor for the Wyoming Department of Corrections, claiming negligent care led to her leg being amputated. Janet Lynn Sanchez filed her lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming on Tuesday, alleging that YesCare Inc. and practitioners working for the company allowed her infected right leg to fester until it became an emergency that resulted in its amputation above the knee, according to the lawsuit and court records.

Investigators with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) have charged a second former custody officer with abuse of a vulnerable adult following an investigation of an incident at Wellpath Recovery Solutions in Columbia. According to the arrest warrant, Javin Lashaun Carter-Wicks allegedly hit the victim with a shield, causing the victim to hit a wall. The victim is a patient at Wellpath and considered to be a vulnerable adult. SLED had earlier charged Gregory Marcel Higgins, 44, with abuse of a vulnerable adult. SLED said the allegations against both men were corroborated through interviews, surveillance videos and information provided to the agency.

Vital Core

Otero County’s mounting legal exposure reached a new flashpoint this week with the February 19 settlement of more than $2 million in the federal wrongful-death lawsuit over the 2023 suicide of Jacob Gutierrez at the Otero County Adult Detention Center. The Gutierrez case remains a stark example of alleged failures in mental-health care. The New Mexico Prison & Jail Project, which represented Gutierrez’s mother, called the settlement “a blaring admonition” that the cost of constitutional violations is “sky high,” urging the county to redirect funds from lawsuits to actual mental-health treatment. VitalCore Health Strategies allegedly provided inconsistent monitoring and inadequate intervention.