A Redding man died while being held for trial in the Shasta County Jail. The sheriff said Juan Moreno was found unresponsive on Jan. 23, and life saving measures did not work.
He’s the fifth person to die in the Shasta County Jail since 2023.
Shasta Scout reporter Nevin Kallepalli reported on the death. He said not a lot of information was available regarding the circumstances.
“Like many other police departments all over the country, accessing information quickly is really difficult,” Kallepalli told NSPR. “So we looked at open source data to sort of try to contextualize this death within a larger sort of dynamic.”
After looking at the data, Kallepalli learned there have been more deaths at the jail in the past.
“According to Open Justice, 40 people have died while in custody of Shasta County's carceral system, and 35 of those 40, like Moreno, died while they were still presumed innocent under California law. So, Moreno had not been charged with a crime yet. He was awaiting trial,” Kallepalli said.
Kallepalli also said previous reporting from the Redding Record Searchlight found the numbers of in-custody deaths in Shasta County to be high when compared to counties of a similar size.
In a response to a request for comment by NSPR, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office said the safety of inmates and staff is their priority, and they consider any in-custody death unfortunate.
They said they are continuing to review procedures to prevent these types of incidents.
The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office will lead the investigation into Moreno’s death. They say the Redding Police Department will also provide assistance since an in-custody death is involved.
