Amid ongoing scrutiny regarding the county’s unusually high rate of in-custody deaths, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office has released the cause and manner of death of an inmate who died earlier this year after suffering a medical emergency.
According to a Wednesday release from the department, shortly after 3 p.m. on Aug. 30, fellow inmates at the San Diego Central Jail told deputies that 35-year-old Steven Curren was in medical distress.
Deputies found Curren unresponsive, called 911, began life-saving measures and summoned jail medical staff, the department said. Curren was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 4:31 p.m.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office later determined Curren had died of natural causes due to complications of hypertensive cardiovascular disease in his right kidney, which was congenitally underdeveloped and smaller than normal. Asthma, chronic alcohol use, and obesity were listed as contributing conditions.
Curren had been booked into sheriff’s custody on Aug. 29 on suspicion of vehicle theft and possession of stolen property.
“The San Diego Sheriff’s Office extends sympathies to the Curren family and all those affected by his passing,” the department said, adding that a sheriff’s family liaison officer will continue to assist his relatives.
As is protocol for all in-custody deaths, the sheriff’s Homicide Unit responded and is conducting a full investigation to review all aspects of the incident. The Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board was also notified.
The Sheriff’s Office, which runs the county’s jails, has been under scrutiny for years due its unusually high number of in-custody deaths.
In 2022, the California State Auditor’s Office found “deficiencies with how the (county agency) provides care for and protects incarcerated individuals (that) likely contributed to in-custody deaths.” That audit examined 185 deaths within the San Diego-area jail system from 2006 through 2020, a rate that exceeded all of California’s other large counties during the same period.
Nineteen in-custody deaths occurred in the county in 2022 alone, and another six took place in 2023.
The Sheriff’s Office has committed to a $500 million effort to modernize and upgrade its jails, but critics have questioned whether those efforts have been sufficient to address the problem of custody deaths.
