California Public Records Act: private detention facilities

The law gives the public access to calls, written complaints, and related law-enforcement records concerning illness, injury, suicide attempts, alleged crimes, and emergencies at these facilities.

What the law does ​

• Requires state and local agencies to release recordings or transcripts of calls reporting or describing an incident at a private detention facility.
• Requires release of written communications reporting or describing those incidents.
• Requires law-enforcement agencies to release related reports, investigation records, and findings, subject to a narrow active-investigation exception.
• Limits redactions to crime-victim identifiers and people facing a specific, particularized significant physical-safety risk.
• Exempts the Office of the Attorney General, Department of Justice, Department of Consumer Affairs, and entities within the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Who it affects ​

• People held in private detention facilities and people reporting incidents involving them.
• State and local agencies, including law-enforcement agencies that hold the covered records.
• Members of the public seeking records about private detention facilities.