Killed On Day 1: RivCo Jail Security Lapses Blamed For High Murder Rate | Report

MURRIETA, CA — Already known as one of the nation's deadliest jail systems, Riverside County is facing renewed scrutiny after a New York Times investigation linked a series of inmate homicides to lapses in security protocols.

Jail staff ignored safety protocols, leading to the death of inmates, and when inmates died, follow-up investigations were often not properly carried out, according to the report by The Desert Sun and The Times. Their investigations found that the Riverside County Sheriff's Department reported inaccurate timelines, omitted details and, at times, added false information. The jail's mounting death toll has cast a shadow over the sheriff's gubernatorial campaign and triggered lawsuits, an investigation by the attorney general, calls for reform by loved ones of slain inmates.

In one case, then-33-year-old Micky Rodney Payne of Perris was arrested in January 2023 for allegedly murdering his cellmate, 24-year-old Mark Anthony Spratt of Fontana, the Riverside County Sheriff reported in a news release that left out significant details of the slaying.

But a surveillance image obtained by the Times shows Payne throwing Spratt over a handrail 15 feet to his death. The Times noted that an inexperienced guard had remotely opened the cell door — violating safety protocol — during a fight between the two. It was Spratt’s first day in custody.

This is just one of many deaths raising alarms in the county jail system headed by Sheriff Chad Bianco, who recently announced a bid for Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial seat in 2026.

From 2020 through 2023, Riverside County reported the highest homicide rate among large California jails, according to state data cited by the Times. In 2022 alone, at least 19 detainees died in county custody, marking the highest annual total reported by the California Department of Justice in more than three decades.

The surge has placed Riverside among the most lethal jail systems in the country.

Patch has submitted public records requests to both the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office. Neither agency immediately responded to a request for comment about what is being done to address security lapses in the jail system.

Reporting by The Desert Sun and The Times found clear patterns of security lapses, negligence and policy violations that were contributors to the six homicides in county jails from 2022 through 2024.

An investigation into the deaths revealed that more than half of the guards at one jail — which was not named — were performing security checks far less than required. Some were being performed two hours late. In other instances, guards failed to act during attacks that turned deadly. Suspicious activity was also not properly monitored on surveillance cameras, the Times reported.

“If you are following your training and guidelines, you should be able to effectively reduce the risk of this kind of violence,” Michael Lujan, who retired as a sheriff’s captain, told the Times of the homicides. “Think of the thousands of people who have cycled through the jails in years past without a problem here and in other counties.”

The Sun and Times reporting found the sheriff's department jail death investigations to be undermined by inaccurate timelines, omitted details and false information.

The sheriff's department has fallen under increased scrutiny as the body count adds up. Sheriff Bianco has pointed the blame for inmate deaths at Gov. Newsom and California's Democratic lawmakers.

When Bianco later commented on Spratt's death, The Press-Enterprise reported that Bianco falsely claimed Spratt had a history of violent crimes and that the two detainees had gotten along as cellmates for several months, according to the Times.

The jail system also falsely reported that Spratt was Black, while the autopsy report and his own family said he was white.

Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched a civil rights investigation into the sheriff's office in 2023, citing concerns over its jail facilities.

"Whether you have a loved one in jail or are worried about crime in your neighborhood, we all benefit when there is action to ensure the integrity of policing in our state," Bonta wrote.

After Richard Matus died in a county jail cell in 2022, his mother, Lisa, began calling for an overhaul of the system's death investigations. Richard, who was 29, had been taking high blood pressure medication and was feeling sick and dizzy for years while he was in custody. As he became more ill, he was not sent to the hospital. When he died, an autopsy listed his cause of death as “fentanyl and ethanol toxicity,” but the report also found severe coronary artery blockage, blunt trauma and lacerations, CalMatters reported.

Matus’ family sued the Department and Sheriff Bianco in 2023.

Lisa is now part of the Riverside Sheriff Accountability Coalition, which is calling for separating the role of coroner, public administrator and sheriff "...because of problems we’ve seen about how they’re handled by the sheriff, but also because it has an inherent conflict of interest,” Chani Beeman, a League of Women Voters member involved in the coalition, told CalMatters.

But Bianco, has denied claims that the department is responsible for the deaths.

"This anti-law enforcement, pro-criminal, activist group simply can not take no for an answer," he has said.

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RivCo Has One Of The Deadliest Jail Systems In U.S.: Report