After a death at Santa Rita Jail, what your family needs to know

If someone you love died at Santa Rita Jail, we are deeply sorry. A death in custody leaves families with grief and with questions that the county is often slow to answer. You may not even know yet exactly how or when it happened.

This guide explains, in plain language, how a Santa Rita Jail death lawyer approaches these cases. Santa Rita is Alameda County's main jail, in Dublin, run by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. Below you will find what public records show about deaths there, what a federal court has ordered the county to change, who can be held responsible, what families have recovered, and the deadlines that protect your rights. The first deadline is short: a claim against Alameda County is generally due within six months.

What the records show about deaths at Santa Rita Jail

Facility	Santa Rita Jail
Operated by	Alameda County Sheriff's Office; medical care by Wellpath under contract
Location	Dublin, Alameda County
Population	About 1,500 people, including about 115 women (KTVU, February 2025)
Deaths in custody	2021: 8 (KTVU) · 2023: 6 (Sheriff's Office table) · 2024: 3, lowest since 2014 (KTVU) · 2026: at least 3 as of June (local news)
Oversight	Federal consent decree in Babu v. County of Alameda (2021–2027), with court monitors

Santa Rita is much smaller than it used to be. About 1,500 people were held there in February 2025, down from about 3,500 six years earlier, KTVU reported. Medical care is provided by Wellpath under a five-year, $250 million contract that runs through 2027, according to a March 2026 report.

KTVU has kept a running list of people who died at the jail. It counted 8 deaths in 2021 and 72 deaths from 2014 through April 2025. The Sheriff's Office's own death-in-custody table lists 6 deaths in 2023, four at the jail and two at hospitals. In 2024 there were 3 deaths, the lowest number since 2014, KTVU reported. The Sheriff's table also lists a man killed at the jail in March 2025.

In 2026, local news reported at least three deaths between March and June, including a woman who died after being sent back from the hospital, a man found unresponsive in late May, and a man who died in early June. These counts may change as of October 2026. The jail also says staff saved 336 lives in 2025, up from 250 in 2024. California requires every in-custody death to be reported to the state Department of Justice.

Why people die at Santa Rita Jail

KTVU's review of the deaths points to a few patterns. Suicide has been a leading cause, and a 2019 analysis found those deaths concentrated among people held in isolation. In recent years, medical inattention and drug overdose have become more common.

Missed safety checks come up again and again. In one 2021 suicide, body camera footage showed that cell checks recorded in the log did not actually happen, KTVU reported. In another case, Maurice Monk lay dead in his cell possibly for three to four days before he was found in November 2021, according to KTVU.

Violence and restraint have also caused deaths. Dat Thanh Luong was killed by his cellmate in 2016, 81 days after a judge ordered him moved to a state hospital. Dujuan Armstrong died in 2018 after being placed in a WRAP restraint and a spit mask. Christian Madrigal, 20, died in 2019 after he was chained to a cell door during a mental health crisis. Each family sued, as described below.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice found that conditions at the jail likely violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Prison Legal News reported.

The Babu consent decree and where things stand

People held at Santa Rita sued Alameda County in federal court in 2018 in Babu v. County of Alameda. In January 2022, the court approved a six-year consent decree covering 2021 to 2027, according to the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. It requires the county to hire 107 mental health staff and more than 300 custody staff, give people minimum time out of their cells, limit restrictive housing for people with serious mental illness, adopt a new use-of-force policy and stop using WRAP restraint devices.

As of February 2025, 59 of 183 reforms were in substantial compliance and 115 were in partial compliance, KTVU reported. Monitors described "excellent strides" and "significant improvements" in mental health care, and the number of people in restrictive housing fell from 113 to 28. But staffing, heavy reliance on force, too little out-of-cell time and the lack of an ombudsperson remained problems. In January 2025, the Sheriff asked the court to end parts of the decree about three years early. Lawyers for the people in the jail responded that the requirement of 14 hours a week out of cell was still not being met.

Who can be held responsible for a death at Santa Rita

• Alameda County and the Sheriff's Office. The county can be liable under federal civil-rights law when its policies, customs, staffing or training caused the death.
• Wellpath, the jail's contracted medical provider. In the Monk case, Wellpath paid $2.5 million on top of the county's settlement. Before Wellpath, the medical contractor Corizon paid part of a 2015 settlement. Our guide to suing jail healthcare contractors like Wellpath explains how these claims work.
• Individual deputies, nurses and doctors who ignored a serious medical need, skipped required checks, or used excessive force.

Most people at Santa Rita are awaiting trial. Their right to medical care and safety comes from the Fourteenth Amendment; for sentenced people, it comes from the Eighth Amendment. Courts ask whether staff acted with deliberate indifference or failed to respond reasonably to a known risk. We gather the records to answer that question. For the basics, see can you sue if someone dies in jail in California.

Recent settlements and verdicts

These are reported results in Santa Rita Jail death cases that families brought. Other law firms handled them; they are not our cases. All are settlements; we found no reported jury verdict in a Santa Rita death case.

In the Monk case, criminal charges were filed against deputies and medical staff in 2024, but by July 2026 all but one charge had been dismissed, KTVU reported. A civil case does not depend on a criminal conviction.

Every case is different. Past results, including those listed here, do not predict the outcome of any other case. See more reported results in our list of California jail death settlements and verdicts.

Hurt in custody, not killed?

Many people leave Santa Rita alive but badly hurt: injured during a use of force, sicker because their medication was stopped, or harmed because a medical complaint was ignored. Those cases can be brought too. Read our guides on suing after being beaten by deputies and being denied medication in jail.

When Wellpath staff or deputies knew about a serious medical need and did not act, the claim is usually about jail medical neglect and deliberate indifference. The six-month claim deadline applies to injuries as well as deaths. Ask for a free, confidential review.

Deadlines for a wrongful death claim against Alameda County

For state-law claims such as wrongful death and negligence, California law requires a written government claim within six months of the death (Government Code § 911.2). Alameda County Risk Management says the "Claim Against the County of Alameda" form goes to the Clerk, Board of Supervisors, 1221 Oak Street, Room 536, Oakland, CA 94612. If the county rejects the claim, a lawsuit generally must be filed within six months of the written rejection. A late claim is allowed only on narrow grounds and must be requested within one year. Waiting is the most common way families lose state-law claims.

Federal civil-rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 do not require a government claim and generally must be filed within two years in California. A claim against Wellpath, as a private company, is not subject to the six-month rule and generally has a two-year deadline for wrongful death. But the county will almost always be a defendant too, so plan around six months.

The estate can bring a survival claim for what the person went through before death. In civil-rights cases, federal courts in California have allowed the estate to recover for the person's own suffering in some cases. Spouses and children, and in some situations parents or others who depended on the person, can bring a wrongful death claim.

What to do in the first weeks

Our full guide on what to do when a loved one dies in jail has more detail. In short:

1. Request the autopsy and coroner's report, including toxicology, as next of kin.
2. Do not sign anything from the county, the Sheriff's Office or Wellpath until a lawyer has reviewed it.
3. Write down names and dates: who called you, what they said, and when you last spoke to your loved one.
4. Keep letters, voicemails and jail messages. Save recorded calls and any medical requests your loved one mentioned.
5. Preserve phones and social media. Do not delete accounts or texts.
6. Call a lawyer early. We send preservation letters so the county and Wellpath keep video, body camera footage, cell-check logs and medical records.

How LaCour handles a Santa Rita Jail death case

LaCour Trial Lawyers is a partner-led trial firm, with Jonathan P. LaCour as lead trial counsel on police misconduct and wrongful death in custody cases. We do not have an office in Alameda County; our closest office is in Fresno. We take cases throughout California and travel to meet families. Our team includes Spanish-speaking lawyers and staff. There is no fee unless there is a recovery.

You may also find our guides to deaths in the Santa Clara County jails, Sacramento County jail deaths and fentanyl overdose deaths in jail helpful, along with our overview of deaths in California jails and prisons. When you are ready, request a free, confidential review.

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information about California and federal law and about public records as of its date. It is not legal advice, and reading it or contacting us does not create an attorney–client relationship. Allegations in lawsuits are claims, not findings. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Attorney advertising.