Santa Barbara County will join other counties in the state in requiring inmate deaths to be investigated by an independent coroner instead of the one contracted by the Sheriff’s Office.

Assembly Bill 1108, introduced by Assemblyman Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, will require the Sheriff’s Office to hand over investigations of deaths that occur in its custody to independent coroners in different counties or hire a private independent examiner.  

California is one of three states in the country that allow for elected sheriffs to also act as coroners. Hart said the new law will not only change that but increase confidence in the justice system.

“At a minimum, this arrangement erodes public confidence in the results of these important investigations,” Hart said at a press conference Wednesday, following Gov. Gavin Newsom signing the bill into law. “In some cases, this process allows sheriffs to put a thumb on the scale of decisions that should be exclusively made by physicians, altering the outcomes of investigations.”

Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County are among the 48 counties in the state that have combined sheriff-coroner offices. The 10 other counties, including Ventura, have independent coroners.

The Forensic Accountability, Custodial Transparency, and Safety (FACTS) Act of 2025 will apply to deaths in county jails, state prisons and law enforcement custody. It was also amended to include the deaths of people being arrested by federal immigration authorities if the case falls under county jurisdiction.

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors supported the bill and urged Newsom to sign it.

In comments at a press conference Wednesday, county Supervisor Laura Capps expressed support for the new legislation and thanked Hart and his team for introducing the bill. She also thanked the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury for repeatedly raising the issue of in-custody deaths in its reports.

Capps added that every death in the county’s jails is a tragedy and that the county needs to continue to take lessons from them.

“We have to learn how to do better,” Capps said, “and without an independent body (and) without some sort of accountability that comes with some bit of distance, it’s hard for those lessons to be unearthed.”

Grand Jury reports have repeatedly investigated deaths at Santa Barbara County jails, including ones they deemed preventable.

The Sheriff’s Office has not shared how it will alert the county if an in-custody death occurs or what its role will be in the process.

Advocates have called for criminal justice reforms and better medical and mental health care for people in custody. One recent death in jail was a Santa Maria man, Jonathan Paul Thomas, who died of a heart attack shortly after he was booked at the facility.

In the wake of Thomas’ death, local activists called for better mental health treatment, a reduction in the population at the jails, improved risk assessment for inmates and more community-based alternatives to jail.

One of the leading voices for alternatives to jail time has been the League of Women Voters, which supported the FACTS Act.

Gail Osherenko of the Santa Barbara chapter said the organization has been concerned about the lack of independent investigations for years. She added that the bill was not just supported by the local chapter of the LWV, but the state organization.

Osherenko called the new bill sensible and said it helps remove a conflict of interest between the coroner and the sheriff roles.

“We are really grateful that these cases will be investigated and evaluated by an independent coroner, or hopefully, a medical examiner such as they have had in Ventura since 1973,” Osherenko said.  

Hart closed the press conference by thanking law enforcement and mental health groups for helping keep people with mental health issues out of jails and providing better treatment to people who are incarcerated.

“We must also work to improve conditions in our correctional facilities so that they can produce better neighbors and so that we can make better living conditions for the incarcerated and working conditions for law enforcement who serve in those situations,” Hart said.