JusticeLA, a coalition of more than 40 community organizations, aimed to “send a message that we are ready and prepared to disrupt business as usual in Los Angeles” in order to reduce the number of people being held in county jails, Mark-Anthony Johnson of Dignity and Power Now told the board.
Advocates for criminal justice reform, dressed in orange T-shirts reading “I am not the property of L.A. County jail,” set up bunk beds in the middle of Temple Street — which was closed between Grand Avenue and Hill Street — to simulate a jail setting. Rallying in front of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration as the board met inside, they shouted “No more jails!” and speakers called for a moratorium on new jail construction.
“We built 100 jail beds … to really bring what’s private to the public,” Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and Dignity and Power Now, told City News Service.
Cullors urged that funds earmarked for jails be spent on homelessness, education and programs to lift communities out of poverty, saying county officials have “historically divested from poor communities … and invested in us being inside these beds.”
The county has plans to build a 1,604-bed women’s lockup in Lancaster and a 3,885-bed jail/treatment facility in downtown Los Angeles to replace the rundown Men’s Central Jail. Converting the Mira Loma detention center in Lancaster to a women’s jail is estimated to cost $137 million and the Consolidated Correctional Treatment Facility carries a price tag of about $2.2 billion.
Activists say forecasts used by the county overestimate the need for jail beds.
In 2015, before approving plans for the downtown and Lancaster jail facilities, the board hotly debated the number of beds that should be included. Supervisor Hilda Solis pressed for a lower number of jail beds and abstained from the final vote, while then-Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich joined Sheriff Jim McDonnell in arguing for even more beds than were ultimately included.
As of Tuesday morning, there were 17,460 inmates in county jails, which have a state-rated capacity of 12,537, according to a count provided by the Sheriff’s Department, which manages overcrowding by releasing offenders who are sentenced to a year or less behind bars after they’ve served 10 percent of their term.
Justice LA called for a working group to look at how new laws — including those that reduce criminal penalties, allow early release for non-violent crimes and fund the fight against homelessness — will affect the future demand for jail beds. The group urged the county to work toward cutting the jail population by half by 2022.
The group submitted a draft motion to the board asking that a moratorium on jail construction be put in place until the county can “fully implement the promise of Prop 47, Prop 57, Measure H” and other voter-driven reforms, Cullors said.
She and other advocates pointed to New York City as an example of what can be accomplished. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has plans to cut the city’s jail population in half and close Rikers Island, using bail reform as one key tool.
“We ask that Los Angeles push a path of redemption, reconciliation, reimagination and reinvention,” said Alberto Retana, CEO of Community Coalition, asking the board to focus on the root causes of incarceration.
A sheriff’s spokeswoman said the number of beds needed was not expected to decline, as any drop would cause the department to scale back its policy of early release.
“We release inmates before completion of their court-ordered sentence when our inmate population exceeds our ability to properly (or) safely house them,” Nicole Nishida said in an email to CNS. “We will not see a reduction in our population as a result of Prop. 47 (or) 57, etc., because if (and) when our population decreases, we will raise the percentage of time being served, and the beds will remained filled.”
Both sides say they are aiming to help mentally ill inmates, who make up roughly one-quarter of the total jail population. The terms of a county legal settlement with federal officials mandates that more be done to prevent jail suicides and the mistreatment of mentally ill inmates.
Providing the appropriate mental health treatment requires building a state-of-the-art facility, like the one proposed to replace Men’s Central, say McDonnell and other county officials.
But opponents say adequate treatment cannot be offered in a jail environment and mentally ill inmates should be diverted to community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
“We know that you cannot get well in a cell,” Kim McGill of the Youth Justice Coalition told the board, asking the supervisors to invest in something beyond mass incarceration for black and brown people in L.A. County.”
The board approved a number of additions to its annual budget as those who had rallied outside waited inside for their turn at a microphone. There were no agenda items specifically related to the jails.
“We are often not on their agenda,” Cullors said when asked why Justice LA turned out.
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Paul says
I work in the system. There is not enough jail space for the defendants we have. Just one example: We had a woman sentenced to 270 days jail on July 7 of this year. She had two days credit for the time she was in before sentencing. She was released July 24 by the Sheriff’s Department. This is a sentence for a crime of violence. People sentenced for thefts, drugs, DUIs, etc. serve much less time (2-3 days on a 6 month sentence). I don’t understand why the media doesn’t make more people aware of this going on in L.A. County.
ManE says
Bleeding heart libtards can’t make up their minds. They decry the current overcrowded and under serviced jail population, yet they object to a logical solution of building additional facilities to address both issues. If you read the writing on the wall, it seems that they prefer nobody be held accountable for their actions and serve time. They expect the government to solve everything. The solutions to reducing crime and recidivism starts at home. Parents need to actually be involved with their kids, constructively. Teach them morals, values, and ethics. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched a mom with her kids at Walmart get into a verbal confrontation with someone, then the kids mimic moms behavior by yelling obscenities too, with their pants around their ankles, headphones around their necks, and recording the whole debacle on their shiny new iPhones. Yet they are poor and underrepresented right? Smh…please. Those same kids will graduate to become the best our society has to offer. Many will eventually end up in the shiny new prisons being built today. No amount of government intervention can fix stupid parents and their stupid kids.
For those objected to the prison that exists in Lancaster, and the new jail being proposed, what would make you happy? Building it in another underserved community? Isn’t that hypocrisy? Besides, prison facilities bring revenue to local businesses. The government code requires these facilities to do business locally whenever possible.
Misquote AKA PoliticalPollution says
BUILD THE WALL and more prisons (but NIMBY) with longer sentences. Period. That’s what we used to when I lived in America. It’s called “Accountability.
Mike White says
Just put up tents in the desert. Worked for Sheriff Joe Arpaio. They’re criminals, not guests at a 5 star resort. Give them a bowl of gruel for breakfast, a bologna sandwich for lunch, and mystery meat stew or SOS for dinner. Will cut down on repeat offenders!
Tim Scott says
Yeah, got Sheriff Joe convicted and got his county on the wrong end of tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits.
You should stick to calling me names Mike…when you try to comment on events you look even sillier than usual.
John says
If tents in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan was good enough for our military, then it is good enough for criminals doing time in America. I’m sure it will make someone think twice about robbing an old lady of her purse.
Mary says
Yikes – imagine the crime increase, the loiters, and the homelessness growth when this jail is built in Lancaster near this area. Ugh. It’s going to be catastrophic. I sometimes go to this jail to do business and the people that walk out to get their property are scary. Some loiter around the jail because they have nowhere else to go. But to be truthful, what can we do? We can protest but the jail will still be built. They are not going to put a halt to it just because 100 people are outside holding signs. I guess you can look at the BRIGHT side – people will get jobs when it opens. And it may just be YOU.
Eric says
Beds? You mean those used gym mats they throw on a metal bunk bed that looks like it was fabricated in a high school metal shop?
LaughingOutLoud! says
Why don’t they just build it at Castaic next to the prison that’s already there? It’s closer to L.A….
Oh, that’s right… it might bother the NIMBYs in Santa Clarita
Misquote AKA PoliticalPollution says
Twenty-something years ago, CA reached an agreement with LA County to build a new state prison in downtown LA, if we agreed to accept one in Lancaster. We did, they lied and blatantly screwed us, and our valley has degenerated horribly ever since.
Tim Scott says
Leaving aside the nonsense about the AV “degenerated horribly ever since” I find this mostly unbelievable. There is no way “twenty something years ago” that ANYONE in state, county, or otherwise government was considering building a state prison in downtown LA, EVER. A state prison requires a huge contiguous area…twenty to thirty acres MINIMUM. Do you have ANY idea what it would cost to buy up such an area in DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES? Even twenty something years ago that would have been recognized as absurd at first glance…by anyone.
Metropolitan detention centers are built, at tremendous expense, that are just large enough to service the local courts. That’s it. There are no long term facilities in major metro areas, and there never will be.
Sam says
We can thank the Runners and the Lancaster political machine for that gem of a prison.
Misquote AKA PoliticalPollution says
One man’s nonsense….
That’s logical and maybe it wasn’t downtown exactly but within city limits. We got screwed. I remember THAT part very clearly. I wish it weren’t true, sob sob.
MC Slammer says
I think we need more jails for JusticeLA, Black Lives Matter and Dignity and Power Now folks!