Vianna Granillo would have been 28 on Saturday. Her family marked the day with a visit to her grave followed by a gathering outside of the Las Colinas women’s jail. On July 12, 2022, Granillo was found gasping for air in her cell at the Santee jail. She died a day later. On a shady patch of sidewalk lining the jail’s parking lot, Granillo’s mother and grandmother were joined by family members of other people who have died in San Diego jails, either from a drug overdose or, like Granillo, drug withdrawal. “They did not follow protocol,” Granillo’s mother Diana Sanchez said, standing in front of a large banner with a photo of her daughter. “She could have had a chance to live.” Sanchez was referring to Granillo’s resolve to stop using heroin and alcohol. She had been in and out of jail and lost custody of her young son. That was the final push she needed to get clean. “She loved her son more than anything,” Sanchez said. “She was going to come out, get clean. She was going to get out, get a fresh start.” Granillo was arrested for violating an expired restraining order that had required her to stay away from her son’s father. The two had since patched up their relationship, and the order had been amended, a fact confirmed later by the District Attorney’s Office. Granillo was also in possession of a small amount of drugs. Under COVID-19 detention protocols in effect at the time, she should have been issued a citation. She was taken to jail anyway. Granillo had gone through withdrawal in the jail before without medical problems, due to a protocol of medication to ease vomiting and diarrhea and close monitoring by medical staff. Booking records show Granillo told the intake nurse about her addiction. She also agreed to a urine test, which confirmed she had opioids in her system. Diana Sanchez holds a photograph of her daughter, Vianna Granillo, who died in jail in 2022, at Luz Duran Park in Vista on Friday, Sept. 27. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) On June 1, 2022, a month before Granillo’s arrest, the San Diego Sheriff’s Office sent out a press release detailing new intake protocols, like urine screening, to flag arrestees who might experience withdrawal. “This information will allow providers to start individuals on buprenorphine and other applicable medications to help improve care and safely manage withdrawal,” the June 2022 press release said. “This is a crucial step in expanding our Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Program.” The changes were in response to the November 2019 death of Elisa Serna, who was also jailed at Las Colinas and suffering from heroin withdrawal. In Serna’s case, jail nurses and a doctor believed she was faking her symptoms to get attention. This past June, Serna’s family settled a lawsuit with San Diego County and the jail’s medical contractor at the time, Coast Correctional Medical Group, for $14 million and $1 million, respectively. Also on June 1, 2022, Alabama-based correctional medical provider, NaphCare, was brought in to take over jail medical services, including the medication-assisted treatment program. Early this year, attorneys for plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit challenging jail conditions uncovered documents showing that NaphCare had not abided by its contract and had been ordered by the sheriff to correct deficiencies. Among a string of other deficiencies, it had failed to implement MAT. Medical records obtained by attorneys representing Granillo’s family show that four days went by before Granillo, who was experiencing severe vomiting and diarrhea, was put on the withdrawal protocol. Early the next morning, she was found unresponsive and gasping for air. According to a lawsuit filed by her family in federal court earlier this year, a broken oxygen tank was brought to her cell, and deputies waited 13 minutes to administer CPR. The medical examiner attributed Granillo’s death to brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen and sepsis from a stomach perforation that her family believes was caused by persistent vomiting and diarrhea.