The Brief

People are dying in custody at record rates across California. They’re dying in big jails and small jails, in red counties and blue counties, in rural holding cells and downtown mega-complexes. They’re dying from suicide, drug overdoses and the catch-all term natural causes.

The number of jail deaths is up even though the number of people in jail is down.

The state is aware. Reams of reports from oversight agencies have repeatedly pointed to problems in individual jails and the state board that oversees them.

Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged almost five years ago that the state would take a stronger hand to prevent deaths in the 57 jail systems run by California county sheriffs.

In every year since, more people have died in California jails than when Newsom made that pledge — hitting a high of 215 in 2022. Tulare, San Diego, Kern, Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ jails set records.

Nor was the pandemic the driving factor: California in 2022 had the smallest share of deaths due to natural causes in the past four decades. A surge in overdoses drove the trend of increasing deaths. And almost every person who died was waiting to be tried. A previous CalMatters investigation found that three-quarters of those held in county jails had not been convicted or sentenced, with many awaiting trial more than three years.

A state board was supposed to put in place measures that would keep inmates safer. Newsom committed to working through that board when he said in 2020, “I’ve got a board that’s responsibility is oversight. I want to see them step things up.” 

But in the years that followed, Newsom and the Board of State and Community Corrections were unable to slow the deaths. Until recently, the board was not even notified about deaths inside the county-run lockups, and a 2021 State Auditor’s report criticized the board for failing to enforce its own rules and standards on mental health checks and in-cell wellness checks of inmates.

The state has begun to take a somewhat stronger role.

The governor appointed a formerly incarcerated person to the Board of State and Community Corrections, and also signed a bill last year that added to it a licensed health care provider and a licensed mental or behavioral health care provider.

Following through on his 2021 budget proposal to increase the frequency of jail inspections and allow the board to perform them unannounced, Newsom directed an additional $3.1 million each year to the oversight board. The board reported that last year it conducted 31 unannounced jail inspections, a change from past practice when it would visit jails just once every two years, and told jail authorities in advance when inspectors were coming.

And a new law in July will add a staff position to review in-custody deaths, a position to be appointed by Newsom and confirmed by the Senate.

But critics say those steps have been insufficient. For instance, the original bill would have put jail death monitors in every county.

From right, Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with former Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, and Attorney General Rob Bonta, speaks in support of Prop. 1 during a press conference at the United Domestic Workers of America building in San Diego on Feb. 29, 2024.

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Kristian Carreon

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CalMatters sent nine questions to the governor about jail deaths, the effectiveness of the state board, and his own 2021 pledge to strengthen jail oversight.

Newsom’s office did not answer the questions, instead sending a list of accomplishments to reflect “the Governor’s extensive record in this space.” Those mostly applied to his policies for state prisons, such as a death penalty moratorium.

When CalMatters asked him about high statewide jail deaths at a March 1 press conference in the Inland Empire, Newsom responded by saying:

“The governor,” Newsom said, “just signed legislation to actually be able to create a point person specifically responsible for overseeing what’s happening in county jails, working with (Attorney General Rob Bonta), who’s also been advancing investigations. One very close to home here in Riverside County, related to 18 in-custody deaths in 2022 with the current sheriff.”

The officials with the greatest influence over what happens in jails — the state’s elected county sheriffs — say additional state oversight is unnecessary. California State Sheriffs’ Association president Mike Boudreaux, who is also the sheriff of Tulare County, said he already answers to a state oversight board, the state Justice Department, county grand juries, federal courts, state courts and the media.

“What we see is that people criticize jails, they criticize sheriffs’ offices,” Boudreaux said. “And the reality of it is, they’ve never been inside a jail. They’ve never worked side-by-side with the sheriffs’ offices. They’ve never sat in meetings that we sit in to make sure that not only are we doing things right, we’re doing things that are for the safety and security of those inmates.”

In 2011 California — as it thinned severely overcrowded state prisons by sending tens of thousands of recently convicted offenders to county-run jails — created an oversight board for prisons and jails. This 13-member Board of State and Community Corrections is composed mostly of people with law enforcement and probation experience. The governor appoints eight, with one each appointed by the Judicial Council of California, Speaker of the Assembly and Senate Rules Committee.

The other two current board members are the state prison system’s chief and its director of parole operations.

The board’s initial mission was to lend independent expertise to jails and prisons and act as a “data and information clearinghouse.” The board gives out $400 million each year to jails, prisons, tribes and community organizations. It also sets standards for correctional facilities, from the hourly checks performed on inmates to the time set aside for recreation.

Almost immediately after its formation, the board was confronted with the limits of its powers: It lacked authority to mandate that all California sheriffs report their data – including in-custody deaths.

That will change when the state board’s new reviewer of in-custody death starts this summer.

When asked by CalMatters why more people are dying in California jails, despite a declining jail population, Board of State and Community Corrections representative Adam A. Lwin responded, “The BSCC is not in a position to comment on this question with respect to deaths in jails.”

“Until the passage of (the new law adding a detention monitor), the BSCC did not have specific responsibilities related to deaths in custody, beyond inspecting for the local agency’s policy and procedures related to reporting on any death in custody,” Lwin wrote in response to CalMatters’ questions.

So why are so many dying in California jails?

The reasons people are dying at record rates in California jails are a matter of circumstance, although in interviews with more than 70 people involved in California jails systems, from sheriffs and prosecutors to inmates and nurses, some patterns emerged.

Natural causes have long accounted for the biggest share of jail deaths, followed by suicides.

Suicide prevention should be a higher priority for jail staff, said University of Texas School of Law professor Michele Deitch, among the nation’s foremost authorities on deaths in prisons and jails.

“The vast majority of these deaths are preventable,” she said.

The causes of a significant number of deaths for recent years are still pending – meaning that the sheriff’s office hasn’t yet identified the cause or the Justice Department hasn’t updated the cause in its data collection.

But the recent increase in deaths came from the third largest cause overall, accidental deaths including fentanyl overdoses. Overdoses accounted for 43 deaths in 2022.

Fentanyl overdoses present a far deadlier challenge now than the previous dominant drug in jails, methamphetamine. Other factors are the same ones Newsom cited a few years ago: suicide; failures in health care or psychiatric evaluations; and less commonly, violence among inmates or by jail guards.

Protesters hold signs outside the John F. Tavaglione Executive Annex building in protest of jail deaths in Riverside County, on Oct. 31, 2023.

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Jules Hotz

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CalMatters

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A row of cells in an inmate housing unit at the Tulare County Adult Pre-Trial Facility on Sept. 18, 2023.

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Larry Valenzuela

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CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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Sabrina Weddle protests in front of the San Diego Central Jail in San Diego on Oct. 24, 2023. Waddle’s brother, Saxon Rodriguez, died while in custody at the jail after overdosing on fentanyl in 2021.

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Adriana Heldiz

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Shannon Dicus, San Bernardino County’s Sheriff and a member of the Board of State and Community Corrections, said the rise in deaths in part reflects trends that are unfolding outside of jails, including an overstretched mental health system and widespread use of potentially deadly opiates.

For his deputies, a persistent issue is people who know they are in violation of their probation terms hiding drugs in their bodies before they’re returned to jail.

“So a lot of these folks are secreting opiates in their rectum,” Dicus said. “We run dogs through. We do a number of things. We’re spending $250,000 on body scanners. And what happens is some of these people, they’ll have it in their bodies where we can’t detect it.

“They go into the jail, they get housed in their general housing assignment, and then all of a sudden I have seven fentanyl overdoses. And that’s the truth.”

Dicus said jails also find letters sent to inmates in the mail that were dipped in diluted fentanyl or methamphetamine.

But sometimes the jail-keepers themselves are responsible. During the pandemic, when jails were closed to visitors, drugs still found a way in. Jail deputies in Riverside and Fresno counties have been charged with drug smuggling, and an Alameda County civil grand jury found that a private jail contractor fired the medical director of the county’s jails for writing fake prescriptions to obtain opioids for herself.

Sheriffs have sometimes resisted outside pressure to more closely monitor their employees. In San Diego County jails, where according to Justice Department statistics 47 people died between 2021 and 2023, Sheriff Kelly Martinez and her predecessor have repeatedly refused requests from the local civilian law enforcement review board to put her deputies through scanners before they start their shifts. Two jail deputies pleaded guilty to drug-related charges last year, one for burglary of medication from a jail prescription medication drop-off box and the other for possession of cocaine on jail property.

Burned out jail medical staff

Jails could do a better job beginning at intake and reception, said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. She noted that people who have been arrested often are asked deeply personal questions about their substance use and history of self-harm, within earshot of jail deputies and other inmates.

If they don’t disclose that they have drug or alcohol dependency – perhaps fearing that will lead to more charges – Kendrick said the immediate cutoff can pose an enormous health risk.

And for people who are on psychiatric medication but don’t like the side-effects or don’t want to disclose their condition, the cessation of their medication can send their mental health into a tailspin.

The pandemic also badly dented jails’ ability to provide quality health care, critics contend.

When jails reopened to their regular capacity, Kendrick said, the arrival of new inmates and the resignations of burned-out health care workers stressed the systems beyond their breaking points. “A lot of jails have said that they’re having problems with correctional and health care staff who quit during the pandemic,” she said.

One of those was Dr. Lauren Wolchok, who worked in Los Angeles County jails from 2016 to 2021. Before and during the pandemic, she said, the number of opioid-dependent patients she saw skyrocketed. But those jails strictly restricted opioid treatment, she said, confining it to a small subset of the population that needed it.

“I was not able to offer the kind of medical care that I wanted to be able to offer and that contributed to burnout for me,” Wolchok said. “I had long struggled with the existential crisis of, am I doing more harm than good by working in this terrible setting or am I sort of fighting against the system and getting people care that they otherwise wouldn’t have?

“Especially as the quality of the care that I felt I was delivering declined, it became harder and harder for me personally to decide that I was fighting the good fight.”

Drug overdoses, insufficient medical treatment, suicides — all of those causes of jail deaths could be minimized by more stringent policies. Academics, inmates and their advocates suggest scanning jail workers for drugs, providing a ready supply of the opioid-blocking naloxone nasal spray, ensuring inmates go through intake in a more private area, performing more frequent checks of inmates, and instituting local oversight boards.

Those decisions fall to one person: The county sheriff.

An overdose? Or a heart attack?

Some of California’s deadliest jails are in Riverside County, where 45 people have died since Jan. 1, 2021. One of them was Richard Matus.

Matus knew he wasn’t feeling well days before he died.

In journals he kept during his incarceration, which his family provided to CalMatters along with his medical records, Matus complained of feeling ill and receiving no medical help in jail.

“Its hard to deal with being treated as a sick animal an feeling like im just waiting to die,” he wrote in one entry. “Iv put in medical slips to see a doctor because I felt sick, very dizzy, bad head ack, felt like I was running fever and completely lost my sense of smell witch was really weird. They never followed up I believe it was twice I put in medical slips an no response so I gave up.”

Matus, whose family said he hadn’t used drugs besides marijuana before his incarceration, was found dead in his cell on Aug. 10, 2022, of a fentanyl overdose.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department coroner’s death record for Richard Matus Jr.

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Miguel Gutierrez Jr.

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CalMatters

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In a lawsuit filed in March 2023, Matus’ family alleges that Matus was lucid and communicative on the phone with his mother, Lisa, hours before his death. They allege that his “dire need for emergency medical intervention went unnoticed by the (jail’s) custody staff.”

An autopsy conducted eight hours after Matus’ death found something else. His left anterior descending artery, which provides half the heart’s blood supply and is known colloquially as “the widowmaker,” was 80% to 90% blocked. A medical form filled out by Matus on Sept. 26, 2021, indicated that a doctor told him his cholesterol and blood pressure were far above normal.

“Every time he complained to that (jail medical) office, they gave him cholesterol pills and told him to lose weight,” Matus’ mother, Lisa, told CalMatters. “They never sent him to the hospital, even though his blood pressure and cholesterol was (above normal). The whole time, he needed medical care and they just ignored him.”

That contention became part of the family’s lawsuit.

“Due to the great delays in securing adequate emergency medical attention for Richard Matus, Jr., and the failures on behalf of the (jail’s) custody staff in performing the required safety and welfare checks,” Matus’ family wrote in the lawsuit, “Mr. Matus did not respond to medical intervention and died.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office responded to the lawsuit by denying all liability and said that Matus’ death was his own doing.

The family of Richard Matus Jr. stands outside the John F. Tavaglione Executive Annex with memorial photos of Richard, who died in-custody of the Riverside Sheriff’s Department in Riverside County.

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Jules Hotz

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CalMatters

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“If Plaintiffs sustained any injury or damages,” they wrote, “such injury or damages were solely caused or contributed to by the wrongful conduct of other entities or persons other than the answer Defendants.”

Some sheriffs have changed their practices to avoid in-custody deaths. Others say they’re looking for solutions. But Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has instead taken an adversarial approach.

Criticism of his policy and practices, Bianco told the Riverside Press-Enterprise, are a “political publicity stunt of the far left.” He did not answer questions from CalMatters.

After an inmate died in 2022, the Riverside Press-Enterprise posted an interview with Bianco. In the comments under the story, someone who identified himself as Bianco interacted with commenters, referring to the demands of people whose family members had died in his jails.

“Did they demand their family members not commit suicide or consume drugs while they were in custody?” he wrote. “Did they ever demand that their family members not commit crimes in the first place? Did their parents ever demand that they take responsibility for their own actions?”

The ACLU sent a letter in September 2021 demanding that the state investigate Riverside County jails. In 2022, another 19 people died, including Matus. After the ACLU wrote again demanding an inquiry by the state’s jail oversight board in early 2023, Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation.

The Justice Department refused to answer any questions about its investigation. Bianco did.

“This announcement comes as a shock but at the same time should have been expected from our California DOJ and the attorney general who cares more about politics than he does about transparency and the truth,” Bianco said in a video the day the investigation was announced.

“This investigation is based on nothing but false and misleading statements and straight out lies from activists, including their attorneys. This will prove to be a complete waste of time and resources.”

‘All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs’

The attorney general has two open investigations into jails, one in Riverside County and one in Santa Clara County. But the organization charged with overseeing day-to-day operations of California’s jails is the Board of State and Community Corrections.

The board can wield significant power.

When it repeatedly found the Los Angeles juvenile hall were unsuitable for housing last year, it shut down the system and directed the county probation department to find new housing for about 300 young people.

But that was an exception.

A Feb. 9, 2023 board meeting turned contentious when it came to the Riverside County jail system, the 15th-largest in the U.S.

Avalon Edwards, a policy associate of Riverside-based social justice organization Starting Over Inc., said the board was not enforcing its own standards of inmate care.

“If (Riverside County) can kill 20 people in 13 months and fail to provide any information to the families impacted, fail to report those deaths to the DOJ within the 10-day mandated reporting period, continue to lie to the public about the cause of death for all these people,” he said, “what are those minimum standards accomplishing?”

Edwards urged the board to withhold funding from noncompliant departments or, if they wouldn’t, he asked every board member to resign.

Critics argue that the board lacks the ability to effectively regulate jails.

“It is not set up with the kind of enforcement power, or teeth, to be able to meaningfully hold accountable agencies that are failing to comply with standards,” recently recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin told CalMatters. “So that’s one problem. And I don’t say that as a criticism of the organization or the people there so much as of the structure.

“I mean, it doesn’t have the ability to actually impose remedies even when it is aware of violations,” he said.

Two independent state oversight agencies also have found fault with the board and the jail system. The Legislative Analyst’s Office found in 2021 that the board’s effectiveness is hard to judge because it’s unclear what the board’s mission is. It said this “undermines the Legislature’s ability to assess whether the program is operating effectively and is consistent with Legislative priorities.”

The State Auditor’s Office, meanwhile, zeroed in on San Diego County jails in February 2022. It found that the San Diego Sheriff’s Department failed to prevent deaths in its jails and that its practices “likely contributed to in‑custody deaths.” The auditor’s office also found fault with the state corrections board, saying its jail regulations are inconsistent and its answers to the audit were “deficient or misleading.”

Even one member of the state corrections board feels the board’s hands are tied.

“All we’re doing is making recommendations to sheriffs,” said board member Norma Cumpian. “You’re like, hey, 20 people have died in your jails. We recommend that you, you know, report it quicker. Like, that’s not a lot.”

A Tulare County deputy sheriff stands guard at an inmate housing unit at the Tulare County Adult Pre-Trial Facility on Sept. 18, 2023.

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Larry Valenzuela

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Cumpian, a former inmate who served nearly 20 years in prison for killing her abusive partner, said she often senses indifference or complacency from her colleagues.

As for plans to add a detention monitor, a dubious Cumpian said “I don’t know, this bill is supposed to release reports to the public. Like, what is that gonna do?”

Dicus, the San Bernardino sheriff who operates the seventh-largest jail system in the U.S., doesn’t see a problem with the way the oversight board operates. He said the oversight board is doing its job in accordance with its mission: assessing the policies and procedures of the jails it oversees while ensuring facilities are up to code.

He said the blame for in-custody deaths extends beyond the jails.

“Locally, try getting some help,” Dicus said. “Our local department of behavioral health, and this is not me throwing stones at them, but they’re 9 to 5. We live in a 24/7 environment where people are in crisis. And the crisis that we’re experiencing, the cops are there 24/7, but we need some of these other service providers to have the same level of response.”

He said the state has to rethink how it operates the social safety net at the county level, especially for mental health and substance abuse.

“It’s just typically this is the way we’ve handled everything, and we need to break out of that,” he said. “I think we need kind of a statewide revisit of what’s working and what’s not.”

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said environmental tests have concluded the Boyle Heights warehouse fire did not result in widespread contamination at nearby schools.

However, on Tuesday they reported lead levels in the soil at two elementary school campuses that exceeded California’s acceptable threshold. Officials announced the results one day before classes resume at dozens of schools within a three-mile radius of the Lineage warehouse.

The district promised to give families advance notice of testing results ahead of the start of school on Wednesday. Those results were posted in a 561-page document uploaded to a district website Tuesday morning.

The district’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety concluded that schools near the disaster “remain safe for occupancy and that the Lineage fire did not result in widespread residual contamination or conditions at LAUSD campuses posing a health hazard to students or staff.”

District officials said indoor and outdoor testing found the presence of ammonia, formaldehyde and manganese, but at low levels that did not raise concern about fire-related contamination that could harm the health of students or school staff.

While some parents have told LAist they feel safe sending their children to schools in the area, others have said they’re worried about potential health impacts from the fire, which covered the neighborhood in smoke for more than a week and left tons of food to rot in the sun.

Two campuses with elevated lead levels

Officials said they found elevated levels of lead in soil samples from two elementary schools. City Terrace Elementary School had 170 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil, while Christopher Dena Elementary School had 120 milligrams. Both exceeded the 80 milligram threshold considered “acceptable” by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.   

Carlos Torres, director of LAUSD’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety, told LAist the district doesn’t believe the lead is tied to the warehouse fire.

“Most likely this could be from things like lead-based paints from use in the past. It could be from agricultural use,” Torres said. “There isn't such a thing as clean soil anywhere.”

How the testing works

LAUSD tested 10 schools out of the more than 50 campuses located within a three-mile radius of the Lineage warehouse.

The report said the schools were selected based on their proximity to the warehouse and in relation to wind patterns that may have influenced where the fire smoke deposited contaminants. The district also tested one school farther from the fire, but similar to those near the warehouse because of its proximity to other industrial sites and a freeway.

The tests were conducted from July 28 to August 7.

The district collected:

• Dust wipe samples from indoor and outdoor spaces including desks, drinking fountains, tables, and playgrounds 
• Soil samples from unpaved areas and gardens 
• Air samples from indoor and outdoor areas including athletic fields, classrooms and gyms 

The district tested for substances that included metals identified as potential contaminants from the fire, including arsenic, lead, lithium and manganese, as well as ammonia, formaldehyde and hydrogen fluoride in the air.

The report said the district consulted with an industrial hygienist, a UCLA researcher, a geologist and a third-party environmental consulting firm to create the testing plan.

The samples were evaluated by a third-party lab and then compared against both state and federal screening levels.

How the district cleaned schools 

District officials have described their response to the warehouse fire in several virtual meetings, including:

• Inspecting and twice replacing air-conditioning filters with those rated MERV-13, an indicator of the filter’s ability to trap small particles
• Deep cleaning, including by washing walls and furniture, waxing floors and pressure-washing outdoor areas and playground equipment
• Placing air purifiers with carbon charcoal filters in all classrooms

What's next

Torres said the front lawn at City Terrace and the tree wells at Dena, where elevated levels of lead were detected, have been fenced off. He said district staff are reviewing the lab results and could decide to conduct more testing that could lead to the removal or remediation of the soil, for example, by laying down mulch.

The district plans to hold another virtual meeting for East L.A. parents on Monday, Aug. 17 at 6 p.m.

LAist reporter David Wagner contributed to this story.

Alexandra Lozano Kennedy — a former immigration attorney who made wide use of social media and Latino religious iconography to attract clientele — had offices across the U.S., including one in the city of Commerce in Southeast L.A.

Lozano Kennedy was licensed by the Washington State Bar Association, which enabled her to represent clients nationwide. In May, she resigned in lieu of discipline for misconduct and is permanently barred from practicing law in that state. As of June 2026, she is also suspended from practicing before the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; immigration courts; and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Lozano Kennedy, who had tens of thousands of clients, is accused of falsifying stories of trafficking and abuse without her clients’ knowledge, according to lawsuits and immigrant advocates.

At her office in Los Angeles County, clients were met with a large image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the reception area, flanked by flowers and votive candles, much like a scene inside a local Catholic church. This holy image was also on business cards distributed at the locale. Lozano Kennedy’s use of this iconography as a business strategy harmed community members, said M. Lucero Ortiz, supervising attorney at Loyola Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic.

“A lot of them are questioning their own faith," Ortiz said.

“Her fraud really only had a shelf life of about five to six years, because that's how long these cases take to be processed,” Ortiz added.

The clinic she supervises is using social media to help Lozano Kennedy’s former clients navigate the fallout amid the Trump administration’s ongoing mass deportation campaign.

Lozano Kennedy billed herself as a miracle worker, Ortiz said. The work permits clients received as their applications made their way through the immigration process bolstered this belief.

"Clients would think: ‘Oh, my gosh! Everybody else told me that my case was too complex, but this woman got me a work permit in six to nine months,’" Ortiz said. “But what they didn't know is that, five years later, that case would be denied. And they would be in removal proceedings.”

What is Lozano Kennedy accused of?  

According to the Washington State Bar Association, Lozano Kennedy's alleged misconduct includes:

• directing staff to use a script that contained false and/or misleading information when communicating with prospective clients
• filing applications for immigration benefits with USCIS when she knew the clients were ineligible for those benefits
• using nonlawyers to perform legal functions on behalf of clients, and/or delegating legal functions to non-lawyer staff, such as performing client consultations and providing legal advice 

Find a full list of her alleged misconduct here. Lozano Kennedy has denied any wrongdoing.

What do advocates recommend?   

If you were represented by Lozano Kennedy and have petitions or applications pending before USCIS, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Loyola Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic have provided guidance for former clients. The latter recommends former clients take the following steps:

• Open an account online at my.uscis.gov. This allows people with pending immigration cases to manage and track their status in real time, including filing applications, receiving digital notices, uploading evidence and communicating securely with USCIS officers.
  
• Submit a change of address (USCIS Form AR-11) request. Be sure to file online and mail the request.
  
  • Cases with a receipt number starting with EAC should mail the request to the Vermont Service Center, USCIS Service Center Operations, Attn: Humanitarian Division, 38 River Rd., Essex Junction, VT 05479-0001.
  • Cases with a receipt number starting with LIN, should mail the request forms to the Nebraska Service Center, USCIS Service Center Operations, P.O. Box 87918, Lincoln, NE 68501-7918.
• Send USCIS a revocation of legal representation letter expressing that you no longer want the attorney of record to represent you and that you will be representing yourself (pro se) while you hire another attorney.
  
• Request a copy of your case file online at USCIS FOIA and through email from Luz Legal.
  
• Check your case status at USCIS and immigration court.
  
• Submit a request to the victims’ compensation fund with the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA).
  
• After you receive a copy of your case file, consult a licensed and experienced attorney about the strategy in your case.

Ortiz, the supervising attorney at the clinic, stressed that these are all steps community members can take for themselves, without the help of an attorney. You can find details for each step here.

The Immigrant Justice Clinic also addressed these frequently asked questions:

• Should all of Lozano Kennedy’s former clients withdraw their pending USCIS application?
  
  • No, if a pending case is withdrawn, it can lead to a notice to appear (NTA)/deportation process. Consult with a licensed and experienced attorney before making any decision regarding your case.
• Are all former clients eligible to join the two pending civil lawsuits against Lozano Kennedy?
  
  • No, not all former clients will be able to join the pending lawsuits.
  • To learn more, former clients can share their contact information and a summary of their case online at https://lozanocivilaction.com/#register
  • In California, the statute of limitations for civil fraud claims is three years.
  • A civil lawsuit will not address or fix an individual’s pending immigration case.
    

As another Los Angeles Unified school year starts Wednesday, district leaders say they hope to maintain recent academic progress while they also contend with a series of budget cuts needed to make ends meet.

"The decisions will be hard, but we cannot lose sight of what defines us," said Andrés Chait, the district’s new superintendent, in a July speech kicking off the start of the new academic year. "We are the system that lifts students to opportunity, turns potential into achievement, creates spaces of belonging, healing [and] growth."

The country’s second-largest school district resumes classes as federal immigration raids continue along with the detention of area parents and children.

What we are hearing

For the most part, LAUSD students told LAist they’re experiencing the usual mix of nerves and excitement associated with the first day of school.

They’re also aware that local and national politics are reshaping their education, including who is in the classroom.

Andrea, a sophomore at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Lincoln Heights, said there were days last year when so many students were absent that teachers would pause their lessons.

“What's the point of teaching it if half the class is gone?” Andrea said. “That really makes everybody behind.”

Educators have patrolled the neighborhood near Andrea’s school to notify families of any ICE activity nearby.

“That definitely made us feel more safe and more respected in the school,” she said. Throughout the year, she noticed more of her peers return to class.

A looming shortfall

LAUSD’s spending is budgeted to exceed revenue by $2 billion this school year. For the third consecutive year, the district plans to pay the difference with reserves that were largely built up by one-time federal pandemic relief dollars.

The district’s financial projections show LAUSD will be short $231 million by November 2027.

The L.A. County Office of Education, which oversees the finances of local districts, intervened in July after the board approved new labor contracts for LAUSD’s largest unions.

“The financial reality before the District raises serious concerns regarding its ability to meet its financial obligations,” wrote Debra Duardo, L.A. County Superintendent of Schools, in a July 2 letter.

If district officials decide to request an emergency loan from the state, it would trigger a rare takeover that would strip LAUSD’s board of decision-making power and likely take years to undo.

The county appointed a fiscal advisor to the district, but did not grant that person the authority to override the board or superintendent’s decisions.

The county directed LAUSD to provide more details about the district’s plan to stabilize the budget through $3.6 billion in cuts spread out over three years. District officials said their plan envisions furloughs for all employees in the 2027-28 school year — a move that requires negotiating with the unions that represent those employees.

“I think what they expect to see from us… is frankly a prove-up around the fiscal stabilization plan,” Chait said. “They want to see that we can actually implement what we put into that plan.”

District staff have previously said that plans to stabilize the budget could lead to more than 6,000 layoffs, amounting to more than 10% of LAUSD’s current workforce.

One unknown is how future state funding will change the district’s budget projections. While California education funding has risen in recent years, the state plans to hold back $3.9 billion for schools and community colleges in the most recent budget.

“No one is asking the state for anything more or less than what we are due,” Chait said. “We are not asking for a handout.”

New, but familiar leadership

Though Chait is new to the district’s top job, he is familiar to many from his nearly three-decade tenure as a district educator and administrator.

District principals greeted Chait with a standing ovation at his first opening-of-schools address in July.

“As I was preparing for this talk, I was thinking about how to introduce myself,” Chait told a crowd of several hundred administrators at James A. Garfield High School. “But then I realized you don't introduce yourself to family.”

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Andrés Chait speaks with educators and support staff at Pacoima Middle School on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.

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Allen J. Schaben

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Chait highlighted preliminary results from the state’s standardized reading and math tests that show a third consecutive year of improvements.

However, even with that progress, the majority of students do not meet the benchmark for either subject. It’s unclear how LAUSD’s performance compares to the state because those results have yet to be released.

Chait is the first LAUSD insider to serve as superintendent in a decade. His hire came after two high-profile external hires — Alberto Carvalho, a former Miami schools leader, and Austin Beutner, an investment banker and former publisher of the L.A. Times.

LAUSD’s elected seven-member board, which has the final say on the district’s financial decisions, is unchanged. Voters re-elected incumbents to this year’s three board races from a sparse field of candidates in June’s primary contest.

Ongoing enrollment challenges

LAUSD is projected to enroll 378,000 students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade this school year.

As birth rates decline, fewer students are enrolling at schools throughout the state. The drop in enrollment is steeper in areas with high costs of living, such as L.A.

California funds schools based on an average of how many students show up to class each day, with additional money for every student in the district who is low-income, an English-language learner, unhoused or a foster youth. Over time, fewer students could lead to less funding.

District leaders attributed last school year’s larger-than-expected drop in students to the “fear and instability” associated with federal immigration raids.

Even students who continued to attend school reported changing their behavior in response to the raids.

Alvira, a junior at Lake Balboa College Preparatory Magnet K-12, is an immigrant from Bangladesh. She started carrying a photocopy of her passport until she could get a REAL ID.

“Just in case anything happens, I can prove that I'm a citizen,” Alvira said.

Dîner en Blanc — the DIY, fine, alfresco meal held in secret locations — has returned to L.A.

The event had been on hiatus here for seven years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and struggles to find a new volunteer host.

But on Aug. 1, around 1,500 people dined and danced right on the street in front of the Beverly Hills City Hall. Past locations include the Santa Monica Pier and the plaza at the Music Center in downtown L.A. The mostly volunteer organization says it's looking to come back in March 2027 with double the attendance.

I heard about Dîner en Blanc about 10 years ago and always wondered if it was worth the hype, a question I’m asking myself more frequently as many pop-ups are more geared towards cool photo-ops as opposed to a good experience.

The event is held in cities around the world, but started in France and is rooted in both celebrating French culture and the tradition of gathering to break bread together —- a concept I can get behind.

Attending requires some planning and legwork, including online registration, a membership fee, a nice picnic, carrying a table and chairs, not knowing where you are going because the location is kept secret until the last minute, and working with a group of strangers to find the spot and set up everything.

Everything you wear and put on your table has to be white. Not eggshell. Not cream. Not even off-white. Paper and plastic are discouraged.

Guests are encouraged to get extra fancy with their table decor and outfits, and awards are given out for both. Those who go all out wear full costumes with wigs, masks and hats, and some tables are decorated with shining glass and twinkling lights.

Then there’s the cost

Creative table settings are encouraged, and judges choose one for a prize.

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Julia Paskin

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LAist

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Entry is $65 per ticket, plus a $14 membership fee. Tickets are sold in pairs. 

It's $15 for table and chairs rental (optional instead of bring your own). This is worth it if you don’t already own white folding chairs. Plus you don’t have to transport anything.

A multi-course meal for two is prepared by Todd English, a celebrity chef. That costs up to $125 — or you can bring your own. The prepared meal is a good option with enough food for two people (if that’s in your price range), but I enjoy putting a picnic together, so I would personally opt to do that part myself in the future.

For beverages:

• Water: 18.5 ounces, optional instead of BYO, $4, or $32 for a box of 12.
• Wine: There's no BYOB. Packages including Chambord and chocolates, from $25 to $68.

And none of that includes parking, gas or rideshare costs.

So was it worth it?

To quote first-time attendee Lilli Burrows: “I don’t need more stuff, I need experiences. I need to have fun things to do and create wonderful memories.”

Guests await the ceremonial napkin wave to start the meal after setting up Dîner en Blanc in Beverly Hills recently.

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Julia Paskin

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LAist

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Hector Gama also attended for the first time and was already planning for next year.

“We kind of downplayed it this time, but I’m sure next time there’s going to be a lot more stuff,” he said.

Alexa Kushner, 26, was invited by friends. “It feels like a really socially unique experience, and it's bonding the community of Los Angeles in a really fun way,” he told me.

Pro tips from guests

• Don’t worry about getting your outfit, meal or table set up perfectly. Be as extravagant as you want, but there are no fashion police or even any judgey vibes. 
• Wear comfortable shoes since you have to carry your items or at least walk to your table.
• Bring a stain remover. Sharing a Tide Pen will make you very popular.

As for me?

• I would pay the extra 15 bucks to not have to bring my own table and chairs.
• I would not pay more than $100 on the pre-made meal when I can bring a cheaper picnic that's more to my taste.
• Would I recommend it? Its a festive event with food, music and sparklers which could make for a fun holiday-like tradition with a group of friends, or if you just want to meet new people in a friendly atmosphere. If that's not your cup of tea, there's plenty of great picnic spots in L.A. that are free.

Get notifications for next year’s Dîner en Blanc here.