Senator Lena Gonzalez’s Detention Facility Transparency Act Passes Assembly Appropriations Committee, Heads…
SACRAMENTO, CA – Senator Lena Gonzalez’s (D-Long Beach) Senate Bill (SB) 423, the Detention Facility Transparency Act, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee today and is now headed to the Assembly Floor for a vote.
SB 423 would specifically amend the California Public Records Act to require local agencies to disclose records related to 911 calls and other calls for emergency services originating from private detention facilities. These records can help the public, journalists, advocates, and state and local officials better understand what is happening inside facilities where reports of civil rights violations, abuse, medical neglect, unclean water, and other inhumane conditions have raised serious concerns. The bill includes safeguards to protect identifying information of crime victims and permits agencies to withhold certain information when disclosure would substantially interfere with an active investigation.
The legislation comes amid continued concerns about conditions inside privately operated immigration detention facilities in California. CalMatters recently reported that seven sexual assault incidents at a privately run detention center in 2025 were not investigated. Greater public access to 911 and emergency call records could help bring critical information to light when people in detention may be experiencing abuse, violence, or violations of their rights.
Those concerns extend beyond individual incidents. Earlier this year, the California Attorney General released a report documenting worsening overcrowding, strained resources, challenges accessing medical care, and other concerning conditions at immigration detention facilities. Between September 2025 and March 2026, six people died at two private detention facilities in California.
Concerns about the health and wellbeing of people in detention are further heightened by reports that ICE has detained more than 650 children in California since the start of this federal administration, including more than 100 children age five or younger. Pediatricians have warned that detention can have serious, harmful and lasting effects on children’s physical and mental health.
“When families’ safety, health and wellbeing are at stake, transparency is not optional—it is urgent,” said Senator Lena Gonzalez. “No private contract or detention center wall should be used to hide dangerous conditions or silence people who have been mistreated inside these facilities. Today the Detention Facility Transparency Act is one step closer to bringing critical information to light, to strengthen accountability and to protect Californians held at these privately-run immigration detention centers.”
“Every day brings new revelations of medical neglect, dangerous conditions, and devastating decisions by for-profit prison companies that put the safety and well-being of people in detention at risk. By advancing SB 423, lawmakers have sent a clear message: greater transparency is essential to exposing abuses, protecting people in custody, and ensuring meaningful accountability,” said Ginny LaRoe, Advocacy Director, First Amendment Coalition.
“SB 423’s passage through the Assembly Appropriations Committee is an important step toward ensuring that private detention facilities cannot operate behind a wall of secrecy. Californians deserve transparency when emergencies, violence, and other serious incidents occur in these facilities, and SB 423 gives communities and advocates a critical tool to hold detention operators accountable,” said Jackie Gonzalez, Co-Executive Director of Immigrant Defense Advocates.
For more details about the Detention Facility Transparency Act visit: https://bit.ly/SB423_FactSheet
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Senator Lena Gonzalez proudly represents one million residents in California’s 33rd Senate District, which encompasses Southeast Los Angeles, the City and Port of Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, and Catalina Island. She serves as Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus and is a dedicated advocate on key priorities that impact Californians from economic development and environmental justice to LGBTQ+ and women’s rights, digital equity and more. Senator Gonzalez has championed major policies, including broadband for all, expanding paid sick leave, advancing clean transportation incentives, and ending neighborhood oil drilling. She lives in Long Beach with her family. To learn more, visit www.sen.ca.gov/gonzalez.
The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest organization working across California to defend free speech, a free press and the people's right to know.
Immigrant Defense Advocates (IDA) is a California-based policy project working to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of immigrant communities through legal advocacy, policy reform, and community-centered defense. IDA advocates for transparency and accountability in systems that detain, surveil, and separate immigrant families.
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