Assembly Bill (AB) 1269, also known as Wakiesha’s Law, a California bill authored by Assemblymember Isaac G. Bryan (D-Ladera Heights), passed out of the Public Safety Committee on April 8 with a 7-0 vote.
The bill requires county and city jails to notify specific individuals when an incarcerated person is hospitalized for a serious or critical condition – or if he or she dies in custody. AB 1269 was re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations.
“If your loved one died in custody, you have the right to know, and you deserve to know,” Bryan told members of the committee before they voted. “This bill offers families basic decency and respect. That responsibility we should have taken up long ago.”
In March 2016, Wakeisha Wilson, 36, was found unresponsive in her cell while in the custody of the Los Angeles Police Department Metropolitan Detention Center. She was later pronounced dead at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center, according to the LAPD.
Wilson’s family said they were not contacted about her death until a few days later when Wilson’s body had been taken to the morgue at the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner.
On June 15, 2017, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a 24-page document that neither Wilson’s cellmate, the LAPD, nor the nurses and physicians who rendered medical help “are criminally liable for Ms. Wilson’s death.”
“It is the conclusion of this office that the manner of Wakiesha Wilson’s death was a suicide,” the memorandum continued.
Bryan, whose work in the Legislature has been centered on addressing disparities in the criminal justice system, said he authored AB 1269 to hold law enforcement authorities more accountable and to increase transparency in cases like Wilson’s.
During last week’s Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing for AB 1269 at the State Capitol, Wilson’s mother, Lisa Hines, testified. She told committee members that when she went to one of her daughter’s final court appearances, the case was not called. However, she was told that her daughter’s case was on the docket that day.
For the next four days, Hines said she made every attempt to find the whereabouts of her daughter by calling different jails. On the fourth day, she was given a number to call the coroner’s office. “It was the longest four days of my life,” Hines said.
“At least they can do is the bare minimum, call the next of kin within 24 hours,” said a teary-eyed Hines. “I ask you guys to pass this bill because no parent should have to find out their child is deceased when she is in custody of the police.” To continue reading please visit www.cablackmedia.org.
