{"id":471629,"date":"2026-09-22T05:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T05:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471629\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T05:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T05:48:13","slug":"family-criticizes-fresno-county-after-inmate-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471629\/","title":{"rendered":"Family criticizes Fresno County after inmate suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a Fresno County inmate who was found hanging days after he was arrested says the county\u2019s medical and corrections staffers failed to provide the care the 22-year-old needed and that is required under the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Kane Rubio was arrested June 11 and was found having hanged himself three days later, according to Denisse Gast\u00e9lum, a Long Beach-based attorney who works for Rubio\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Gast\u00e9lum said none of the family involved in the complaint were present the night Rubio was arrested. She said the Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office has said the call was a domestic disturbance between Rubio and his girlfriend, but said law enforcement has not been forthcoming with much of the other information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very unusual. I have other cases in other counties, and I am at a minimum able to secure, for example, the medical mental health records of the incarcerated person when they were in the county\u2019s custody,\u201d she said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors this month rejected the government claim submitted in July by Gast\u00e9lum. The denial of such a claim is routine, and sets the stage for a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking an unnamed amount.<\/p>\n

The Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office declined to comment, pointing to the potential litigation, according to Tony Botti, the sheriff\u2019s spokesperson. He said Rubio\u2019s death was not included in the tally of deaths at the Main Jail webpage<\/a> because he was released from custody before dying at the hospital, per Board of State and Community Corrections guidelines.<\/p>\n

There have been eight deaths this year in the jail. Most of those are still pending further investigation, but three were ruled as natural deaths. The jail lists five suicides of inmates from 2023 to 2025.<\/p>\n

Fresno County contracts with California Forensic Medical Group Inc. for the care of inmates, which includes physical and mental health. The company says it works in 61 facilities in California, providing care to 14,550 people in custody. CFMG did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

CFMG has been criticized for not providing enough care in places like Monterey County<\/a>, where in 2023 the health care provider was ordered to pay out about $2.5 million to inmates who had sued.<\/p>\n

Gast\u00e9lum said Rubio was \u201cacutely suicidal,\u201d because he had expressed the desire to hurt himself. She noted calls from the jail are not private and staffers routinely listen to those calls where he voiced his desire to his family.<\/p>\n

She also said staffers in jails are required to be trained under guidelines from the National Commission of Correctional Health Care, which includes signs from those in custody who may be planning to take their own lives. That could include checking on the inmate every 15 minutes or even placing them in a padded cell.<\/p>\n

The Fresno County Jail also had been under a \u201cconsent decree<\/a>,\u201d a court order to meet minimum standards of care, for a decade until the order sunsetted this past June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been under federal oversight with literally neutral experts auditing them because of just how subpar the mental health administration is there of their inmates,\u201d Gast\u00e9lum said.<\/p>\n

Fresno County extended its contract with CFMG in December 2024 at $200 million with options to continue the contract through mid-2029.<\/p>\n

Rubio\u2019s mother, Crystal Rivas, set up a crowdsourcing fundraiser to help pay for his unexpected funeral. She described him as having \u201ca unique ability to turn friends into family\u201d in the gofundme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cKane had so much life ahead of him. His loss was sudden and unexpected, and our family is struggling to cope with the emotional and financial burden that comes with it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnyone who knew Kane knew how special he was. He always had a smile that could light up a room. He was funny, caring and deeply loving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kane Kane Rubio, 22, in an undated photo. His family has filed a complaint, saying Fresno County Main Jail medical and correctional staffers failed to protect him while he was in custody. Photo courtesy of Gast\u00e9lum Law \"Kane Kane Rubio, 22, in an undated photo in the a Fresno-area hospital in the days after hanging himself. His family has filed a complaint, saying Fresno County Main Jail medical and correctional staffers failed to protect him while he was in custody. Photo courtesy of Gast\u00e9lum Law \"Fresno Fresno County Jail in downtown. JOHN WALKER Fresno Bee file \"The The new Fresno County West Annex Jail building stands at the corner of Merced and L streets in downtown Fresno on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. It\u2019s still not open but officials say it could be by the end of the month. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com \"Kane Kane Rubio, 22, in an undated photo. His family has filed a complaint, saying Fresno County Main Jail medical and correctional staffers failed to protect him while he was in custody. Photo courtesy of Gast\u00e9lum Law
\n Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Thaddeus Miller<\/a><\/p>\n

Merced Sun-Star<\/p>\n

Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a Fresno County inmate who was found hanging days after he was arrested says the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-471629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471629","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=471629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}