Closing the county’s Men’s Central Jail would take at least five years and a coordinated, multi-faceted effort that includes adding 1,200 new beds each year to house inmates needing mental health care, speeding up court cases and remodeling other Los Angeles County jail facilities to accept transfers of serious offenders.
The measures to accomplish closure of the jail without building a replacement facility — something the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to do back in 2021 — would take steps that the county and the courts must agree on, which are seen as difficult or even unlikely, officials said on Tuesday, Jan. 30.
Because 53% of Men’s Central Jail inmates have mental health conditions, the county would need to add beds to handle these inmates. The cost for that alone was estimated at $50 million per year for 1,000 new beds, according to Dr. Christina Ghaly, director for the county’s Department of Health Services (DHS). Others said that cost could double depending on the level of care needed.
Another leg of the strategy — accelerating case processing by 50% — would help remove inmates who are sitting in jail while they await pre-trial, and who make up 52% of the current jail population.
Judges would need to find that it was safe to release an additional 7,000 people per year to various secure institutions, or into house arrest with electronic monitoring, according to the plan.
In addition to these changes, recidivism rates would have to drop from the current 40% to 10%, according to the five-year plan presented to the Board of Supervisors.
“In tackling jail closure, the county and a number of stakeholders need to come together and agree that this is the top priority,” said retired Judge Songhai Armstead, the director of the county’s Justice, Care and Opportunities Department (JCOD).
Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, who called the jail facility “outdated” and “medieval,” has supported its closure and viewed…
Read the full article here
