A 36-year-old Apple Valley man arrested on drug-related charges less than a week earlier was found unresponsive in his cell at High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto and later pronounced dead, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Douglas James Hill had been in custody since October 21, when deputies arrested him in Hesperia.
Deputies and medical staff at the detention center responded to Hill's cell at about 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, according to vvng.com. Lifesaving measures were performed until ConFire personnel arrived and pronounced Hill deceased, the outlet reported. As KTLA also reported, Hill was found unresponsive in his cell at the Adelanto facility earlier in the week.
At the time of his arrest, Hill was taken to a hospital and medically cleared for booking, per the sheriff's department. The department's Specialized Investigations Division has since assumed the in-custody death investigation. Coroner's Office investigators noted no indications of foul play, and officials say an autopsy will be conducted to establish Hill's cause of death. The sheriff's department has provided no further details about what led to Hill being found unresponsive.
A Pattern of Deaths in San Bernardino County Jails
Hill's death adds to a documented history of fatalities inside San Bernardino County's detention system. A complaint in a separate case, the Alvarado litigation, stated that 30 detainees died in county jails from 2017 through 2020, with 60% of those deaths medically related, according to Prison Legal News. The county previously agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a suit over the March 2019 death of detainee Perla Alvarado at West Valley Detention Center, and separately paid $100,000 to settle a suit tied to the March 2018 suicide of detainee Joshua Pitts, the outlet reported. A federal consent decree covering medical, dental and mental-health care at four county lockups, including High Desert Detention Center, arose from a separate class-action challenge filed in 2016 and reached in 2018.
As of November 2024, the county reported 10 in-custody deaths across its four correctional facilities that year, according to a statement reported by goldrushcam.com. Six of those deaths occurred while individuals were receiving medical care at local hospitals, while four occurred inside the facilities themselves, the statement said. The county's four correctional facilities had a daily population of roughly 4,700 inmates and booked 49,208 arrestees that year, per the same report.
Statewide Jail Deaths Have Climbed
The trend extends beyond San Bernardino County. Jail deaths statewide have risen even as California's overall jail population has declined, according to CalMatters. The outlet reported that California recorded 215 jail deaths in 2022, the highest figure since Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged to address the issue, with a surge in overdoses driving the increase. Fentanyl overdoses and suicides have since pushed death rates in California jails to historic highs, CalMatters reported.
Investigators have not said whether any of that broader history bears on Hill's death, and the cause remains pending the completed autopsy. The Specialized Investigations Division is asking anyone with information about the case to contact them at 909-890-4904. Anonymous tipsters can also call or text the We-Tip hotline at 844-909-3006.
