{"id":171490,"date":"2026-02-10T06:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171490\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:12:12","slug":"county-initiates-health-inspection-at-otay-mesa-detention-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171490\/","title":{"rendered":"County initiates health inspection at Otay Mesa Detention Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>A CoreCivic vehicle at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. (Photo by Adrian Childress\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

San Diego County has begun the public health inspection process at the Otay Mesa Detention Center<\/a> following reports of concerning conditions inside the privately operated immigration facility. <\/p>\n

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair\u00a0Terra Lawson-Remer<\/a> directed staff to assert the county\u2019s authority<\/a> after detainees reportedly threw lotion bottles wrapped with handwritten notes over the facility\u2019s fence, alleging cold temperatures, inadequate medical care and poor-quality food. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people detained in a facility are reduced to throwing handwritten messages over a fence to be heard, that is a public health emergency signal,\u201d\u00a0Lawson-Remer said.\u00a0\u201cThe county is exercising its lawful authority to inspect conditions inside Otay Mesa because silence and secrecy are not acceptable when health and safety are at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Friday, U.S. Representative Juan Vargas<\/a> attempted an unannounced visit to the facility in response to the same complaints, but was denied entry<\/a> for the first time, according to media reports. <\/p>\n

Under California Health and Safety Code, counties may lawfully inspect detention facilities operating within their borders when public health is at issue, including facilities run by private contractors on behalf of federal agencies. The Otay Mesa Detention Center is managed by CoreCivic<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The county review will include sanitation practices, access to medical care, temperature control, food safety and compliance with health standards, according to Lawson-Remer\u2019s office. The board chair plans to accompany the county\u2019s public health officer during the visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis inspection will document the reality inside the facility,\u201d\u00a0Lawson-Remer said.\u00a0\u201cIf conditions meet public health standards, the public deserves to know that. If they don\u2019t, the county will act to protect human health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The examination comes amid nationwide attention on detention conditions, including rising deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>\u00a0custody and federal restrictions on independent oversight. <\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A CoreCivic vehicle at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. (Photo by Adrian Childress\/Times of San Diego) San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[53941,19814,41336,15060,74,76,75,43043],"class_list":["post-171490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-corecivic","tag-juan-vargas","tag-otay-mesa-detention-center","tag-review","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-terra-lawson-remer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}