Media Coverage

When a government expert in mental health visited one of the largest immigration detention centers in the U.S. in 2017, she knew the conditions that detainees there sometimes face. A past inspection had found that staff often failed to obtain adequate mental health histories, leading to faulty diagnoses and, in some cases, treatment plans that were incorrect.

A bill forbidding “body brokering” in sober living homes — and slapping a $50,000 penalty on each occurrence — was sent back to the drawing board by the Senate Health Committee Wednesday, Jan. 15.

The Board of Supervisors is set to discuss proposed revisions to the budget for the North County Jail project in their meeting on Tuesday, as the project trudges into the New Year tens of millions of dollars over budget and months behind schedule.

State Senator Anthony J. Portantino has accepted Disability Rights California’s legislative award for his continued work to promote greater rights and protections for Californians with disabilities. 

Months after advocacy groups sued the Sacramento City Unified School District for discrimination against students with disabilities and black students, the district and the plaintiffs may seek a settlement.

When the power went out at Vicky Jaque’s house in Santa Clarita last month, she found herself desperately scrambling to save the life of her son.

It took nine months for Jennifer McLelland and her husband, Justin, of Clovis, Calif., to bring their newborn son home from the hospital after his birth in 2011.

One 82-year-old man was stuck in a powerless wheelchair for 36 hours, and an 84-year-old woman was up all night without machines to keep her heart working.

Pasadena Unified has reached a settlement that will spur changes to its special education programs for students with behavioral and mental health disabilities. A key feature of the settlement includes a comprehensive report from an independent expert who will audit the school’s existing programs and recommend, then oversee changes for the next five years to ensure they are made according to the settlement’s terms.

Inmates in California jails and prisons will no longer face medical copays as a barrier to treatment

Assembly Bill 1128, authored by Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris has been signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. This bill will expand access to the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) by consolidating the responsibility of licensure functions within the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).

Homeless people in California convicted of drug crimes or charges such as indecent exposure or defecating in public could be sentenced to treatment instead of jail time under a proposed ballot measure.

Less than a week after utilities shut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers up and down California, experts and regulators are beginning to assess what went wrong and what the future portends.

Two members of the county Board of Supervisors are calling for a review of best practices within county jails in the wake of a six-month investigation by The San Diego Union-Tribune into the growing number of inmate deaths.

The end for George Gallegos came on April 21, 2018, when the 55-year-old inmate succumbed to acute pneumonia and severe dehydration while locked up in the San Diego Central Jail. Three months earlier, Gallegos had been a patient at Metropolitan State Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Los Angeles.

More than 130 people have died in San Diego County jails since 2009, the year Bill Gore took over as sheriff. That’s an average higher than one inmate per month, every month, over the past 10 years

When it comes to calculating the suicide rate of jail inmates, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department prefers a different approach than one widely used by experts, oversight groups and federal agencies such as the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The report Friday in The San Diego Union-Tribune about the unusually high rate of inmate deaths in county jails depicts a Sheriff’s Department that knows it has a problem but can’t stop it. Since 2009, the year Bill Gore became sheriff, 140 inmates have died — from poor health, suicide, overdoses and homicide. One hundred fifteen were awaiting trial.

More than two years after an independent audit raised alarm bells about special-ed classes, youth advocacy groups don’t see change coming without legal action

Stephen’s teachers started sending him to the separate room when he was in first grade.

Now 10, Stephen has been diagnosed with autism and anxiety. His mom said that when he got frustrated and behaved in ways teachers found disruptive – breaking pencils, blurting out or crumpling paper – educators swiftly removed him from the classroom, sending him to a room where he would sit the rest of the day without access to school work.