Christopher Damien

3 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Christopher Damien

The jails of Riverside County are plagued with unusually high murder rates and recurring security failures by an inexperienced staff. As two cellmates were fighting in a Riverside County, Calif., jail, an inexperienced guard remotely opened the cell door, a violation of safety protocols. One of the men immediately pulled out the other, hoisted him over his shoulder and threw him over a catwalk railing. He fell 15 feet before smashing into a metal table.

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Christopher Damien

The family of a man who died from an overdose in a Sacramento County jail after being left unattended for hours have agreed to a $3.5 million settlement. That man, David Kent Barefield Sr., 55, was dragged across a garage into the jail last May, not given a medical exam despite being visibly ill, handcuffed in a cart while awaiting booking and only offered medical aid in his final minutes, jail footage shows.

Feb 7, 2025 | nytimes.com | Christopher Damien

A Sacramento man suffering from a drug overdose was neglected by a police officer, medical workers and sheriff's deputiesover the course of more than two hoursbefore he died at a county jail last May, according to reports from court-appointed monitors. That man, David Kent Barefield Sr., 55, was among seven detainees the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office reported dying at its facilities last year - and one of three who died at its main jail in the span of about a month.

Dec 23, 2024 | nytimes.com | Christopher Damien

The newly released footage shows Mr. Aubrey, with a white sheet draped around his neck, pacing slowly around the cell. He takes pieces of paper to the sink and wets them. He climbs to the camera and covers it with paper. What happened next is not visible; at that point there is only muffled audio. Video footage shows one deputy leaving with a lunch cart at 11:44 a.m., just before Mr. Aubrey covered the camera in his cell.

Nov 14, 2024 | pressenterprise.com | Christopher Damien

By Christopher DamienChristopher Damien is reporting about law enforcement in Southern California’s inland and desert communities as part of The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship. Alicia Upton paced the concrete floor of her jail cell. She looked around the cramped quarters. Then she pressed the alert button on an intercom attached to the wall. “What is your emergency?” responded a voice, captured on video footage from a camera in the cell.