In 2019, justice reformers celebrated when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors scrapped a controversial $1.7-billion plan to replace the county’s oldest lockup — the dungeon-like Men’s Central Jail — with a jail-like mental health facility. Buoyed by a rising tide of prison reforms, county leaders decided to focus instead on decreasing the jail population by creating alternatives to incarceration. The new goal would be to close Men’s Central Jail without building a replacement. Five years later, there are roughly 5,000 fewer inmates, but Men’s Central Jail is still open. At the state level, the tides are changing, as voters are set to consider increasing the penalties for low-level theft and some drug crimes, moves that could balloon the jail population. Amid that backdrop, the board appears to be rethinking its no-new-jails strategy, reports the Los Angeles Times..
“The pendulum has swung,” said Supervisor Holly Mitchell. “We keep saying: When are you closing Men’s Central Jail? I think there needs to be an ‘and what are we building or creating for this population that perhaps pretrial, diversion, community settings won’t match.’” It’s a question supervisors have been unwilling to entertain for the last five years, arguing they could shrink the jail population to zero without a new facility. Last week, the board publicly changed its tone after Sheriff Robert Luna and his top jail official told them three-quarters of county inmates are facing charges too serious for diversion programs. “I felt like we finally broke through the discussion of why it’s needed and justification as to why it’s needed, because numbers don’t lie,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “A replacement has to take place.” What the county might replace the jail with — or where it would site a replacement —remains unclear. To some justice reformers, the recent change of tone comes as a profound disappointment.
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