California lawmakers have sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill that would pry open records long kept behind closed doors at privately run immigration detention facilities, including two in the Inland Empire and San Diego regions that have drawn scrutiny over medical care and safety.
Senate Bill 423, authored by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat, would require local law enforcement agencies to release audio recordings and written records of 911 and other emergency calls placed from privately operated detention centers whenever members of the public request them. The measure passed the Legislature this week and now awaits the governor’s signature.
Gonzalez said she introduced the bill after reading investigative reporting by CalMatters that exposed how difficult it can be for journalists and the public to obtain basic information about what happens inside these facilities, even when there’s no active criminal investigation blocking disclosure.
“No private contract or detention center wall should be used to hide dangerous conditions or silence people who have been mistreated inside these facilities,” Gonzalez said in a statement.
The push for transparency traces back to CalMatters’ reporting last year on allegations of sexual assault at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego. When the news organization filed a California Public Records Act request seeking 911 call recordings and related reports on the alleged assaults, a San Diego County sheriff’s spokesperson said the agency wasn’t investigating the incidents — yet still declined to hand over the records, citing an exemption for “law enforcement investigation” materials.
Gonzalez pointed to that episode on the Senate floor Monday, saying reporters seeking information about incidents at detention facilities routinely “faced severe pushback from law enforcement, citing vague investigatory records exemptions, despite there being no active investigation.”
Under SB 423, agencies would be required to disclose the requested calls and records unless doing so would substantially interfere with an ongoing investigation. The bill also mandates that the names of people involved be redacted before release.
The legislation arrives as the population of immigrants held in California’s ICE facilities has nearly doubled since early 2025, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Between September 2025 and March 2026, six people died while in custody at two of the state’s privately run detention centers.
At Otay Mesa, which is operated by CoreCivic, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office had an agreement giving the facility’s warden broad discretion over how allegations of sexual assault were investigated — an arrangement that drew criticism from advocates pushing for outside oversight.
In May, the California Attorney General’s office released a lengthy report documenting how a surge in detainee populations has stretched medical care and living conditions thin across the state’s immigration detention system.
Asked about the bill, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office told public broadcaster KQED it has taken no formal position. The Kern County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees another major detention facility, said it will continue following state law “as we always do.” A legislative analysis found no registered opposition to the measure.
SB 423 was co-sponsored by Immigrant Defense Advocates and the First Amendment Coalition and was introduced in June. Paloma Esquivel, a former Los Angeles Times reporter now with the First Amendment Coalition, said she encountered repeated resistance from county sheriffs when trying to obtain 911 records during her time as a journalist.
“We have a very strong interest and even an obligation to understand how these facilities are functioning and what is happening inside these facilities that are being paid for with billions of dollars in taxpayer money,” Esquivel told KQED.
Jackie Gonzalez, co-executive director of Immigrant Defense Advocates, called the bill a meaningful first step toward accountability.
“By supporting SB 423, California sends a clear message that the walls of private detention facilities cannot hide the truth of what is taking place in these facilities,” she said.
The bill now heads to Newsom’s desk, where he will decide whether to sign it into law.
Original source: CalMatters
