SAN DIEGO _ The number of inmates dying behind bars in jails across the country declined by almost 2% between 2015 and 2016, the most recent years examined in a new report by the U.S. Department of Justice.
During the same period in San Diego County, the number of jail deaths increased from 12 to 15 _ a 25% rise.
The federal government's analysis also shows the national jail mortality rate _ the number of deaths expressed in terms of 100,000 inmates using the average daily population in each jail _ dropped 2.6% between 2015 and 2016.
In San Diego County, the mortality rate increased by more than 16% over the same two years. The county historically has experienced a high number of in-custody deaths.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department, which operates seven jails that detain about 5,500 inmates on any given day, said it has been actively reviewing the latest data, to analyze and learn from trends identified in the report.
"Inmates are a high-risk population on many levels," said Lt. Ricardo Lopez, a department spokesman, in a statement. "We spend $90 million on the medical/mental health care for the 80,000-plus people booked into custody yearly."
According to the study released this month, 1,071 inmates across the country died in local custody in 2016. That was down from the 1,092 inmates who died in 2015.
Over the same period, the national mortality rate in local jails declined from 153 deaths per 100,000 inmates to 149 per 100,000.
In San Diego County, using the same methodology, the mortality rate climbed from 240 deaths to 280 deaths per 100,000 inmates, according to an analysis last year by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
But the San Diego County Sheriff's Department has said it rejected the national mortality-rate methodology.
Instead the local department uses a customized formula that compares local inmate deaths to the number of people booked annually into jails. With that method, San Diego County jails are not outliers, officials have said.
"Using the average daily population method to compare our jail with others does not yield a meaningful measure and is not appropriate for comparisons across diverse counties," Lopez said.
The federal report includes data from all 50 states but does not compare the individual cities and counties within them.
In California, the statewide number of inmate deaths also declined.
Federal analysts said 134 detainees died in California jails in 2015 and 122 passed away in 2016, a decline of 8.9 percent. The California jail-mortality rate similarly dropped by just over 10 percent, from 178 to 160 per 100,000 inmates, over the same period, the report said.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics report includes data produced by local jails between 2000 and 2016, a 16-year period in which the number of jail deaths nationwide climbed, from 904 to 1,092 _ about 20 percent.
The statistical review, which is generated from data submitted by almost 2,800 jails across the country, also includes detailed information about causes of death, inmate characteristics, time served, type of offense and other data.
Additional findings show that AIDS-related deaths dropped sharply in 16 years, from 57 nationwide to just 12 in 2016.
At the same time, inmate deaths attributed to homicide increased 50 percent, from 17 deaths in 2000 to 31 in 2016. Homicides went from being nearly 2% of all inmate deaths to 3 percent.
Death rates from drug and alcohol abuse more than doubled, from 6 to 15 per 100,000 inmates, between 2000 and 2016.
Suicide rates, on the other hand, remain nearly unchanged, accounting for 32% of all inmate fatalities in 2000 and 31.1% in 2016.
In general, researchers say a one- or two-year data sample does not present a reliable view of how a jail or its commanders are performing. But the information can help point to areas that may be ripe for improvement and show how one agency _ or state _ stacks up against its peers.
