A 36-year-old Oakland woman has died days after deputies found her unresponsive in her cell at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, and her case was dismissed. Jessica Watson died at a hospital Thursday, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, after deputies and jail medical staff tried to revive her when she was found with a pulse but unresponsive the week prior.
A Welfare Check Turned Medical Emergency
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, deputies conducted a welfare check on Watson on Oct. 13 and found her unresponsive in her cell at about 8:36 p.m. She still had a pulse at that point, and deputies and jail medical staff performed lifesaving measures before she was taken to a hospital. She died there on Thursday, per the Sheriff's Office.
Watson had been booked into Santa Rita Jail on Oct. 10 on suspicion of domestic violence and driving under the influence, the Chronicle reports. She was released on her own recognizance the day after she was sent to the hospital. Her case was dismissed. An official cause of death remains pending autopsy and toxicology results.
Required Notifications to State and County Officials
The Sheriff's Office notified both the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and the California Attorney General's Office about Watson's death, the Chronicle reported. That notification process tracks with state law: AB 2761, which added Section 10008 to the Penal Code, governs reporting requirements for deaths in law enforcement custody, according to California Legislative Information. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office separately says it is required to post specific information within 10 days whenever someone dies in its custody, per its own transparency page.
No further details about the circumstances of Watson's death had been released as of the Chronicle's report.
Part of a Troubling Pattern at Santa Rita
Watson's death adds to a string of recent in-custody deaths at the Dublin facility. In June, SFist reported that 37-year-old Brandon Anthony Josep Watson of San Francisco died at a hospital two days after being found unresponsive in a dormitory housing unit, following his transfer from Monterey County Jail. That outlet noted his death was the second reported in-custody death at Santa Rita that year and the 77th since 2014.
The same SFist report detailed other recent deaths at the jail: Kenyonna Farr of Oakland died in a holding cell in March, three days after being transferred there, and 36-year-old Dequita Grace Harrell died in the women's restroom of the jail's lobby in February while visiting an inmate. In 2024, KTVU reported that 30-year-old Abrion William McElmore died at Santa Rita on Aug. 24 after being found unresponsive in his cell and never regaining consciousness — the second death at the jail that year and the 70th since 2014, according to that KTVU analysis, which also covered a death at the nearby West County Detention Facility that officials said did not appear suspicious.
A Statewide Pattern of Record Jail Deaths
The deaths at Santa Rita fit into a broader trend across California. CalMatters has reported that California jails are holding fewer people than they have in decades, but they are deadlier places than ever, with deaths surging during the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent wave of overdoses and suicides keeping death rates at record levels. The outlet also found that almost all of the people who died in the state's lockups had yet to be tried — a detail that echoes Watson's case, which was also dismissed.
