Call to Close Men’s Central Jail

TO: Holly Mitchel, LA County Board of Supervisors

FROM: Karina Chan, Ariella Kandkhorov, Benjamin Oakes, Roxanne Vay

DATE: May 29, 2024

RE: Closing Men’s Central Jail

Executive Summary

Los Angeles (LA) County’s Men’s Central Jail (MCJ) incarcerates far more people than it can handle. It has become known for overcrowding, crumbling infrastructure, and inhumane living conditions. Mandates from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and input from community stakeholders have attempted to improve conditions, leading to the formation of a Jail Closure Implementation Team in 2020. Despite the four years that have passed since then, no significant action has been taken. To rectify this issue, we recommend a large investment in rehabilitative and mental health services with a focus on decreasing recidivism. Furthermore, an emphasis on diversion programs would also help ease the burden of overpopulation in MCJ. While these steps are being taken, we strongly advocate for an increased investment in basic necessities and improved living conditions.

Background

MCJ, initially built in 1963, is LA’s biggest jail facility and has a long history of mishandling its inmates. For instance, 22-year-old John Horton was found hanging from a noose in his cell on March 30, 2009, after spending only a month at the MCJ. A fellow detainee reported that Horton was held in solitary confinement in a windowless solid-front cell the size of a closet.1 The individuals at MCJ have been experiencing these conditions for decades. MCJ has not only failed to provide humane living conditions, but has also deprived incarcerated individuals of the resources necessary to maintain their well-being, such as mental healthcare and rehabilitation. Reverend Gary Williams, a former detainee and a long-time advocate of alternatives to incarceration, declares that MCJ cannot be changed and must be torn down.2

The number of individuals with mental illness in this jail system has significantly increased in the past decade. As of early 2024, 53.3% of MCJ’s population suffers from mental illness.3 The jail is poorly equipped to handle these individuals, who are chained to tables during the few hours that they are allowed out of their cell and who are made to wear tear-resistant suicide gowns.4 The jail is also poorly designed, with bad plumbing, excess garbage pileup, and poorly lit cells. Its structural design actively impedes monitoring the inmates and providing them with assistance.5

MCJ was not designed to house people long-term. However, many individuals have been living there for an extended amount of time. 5 people with mental illness have been incarcerated there for over two decades, and another 126 have been incarcerated for 5 to 10 years.6 Furthermore, one in three incarcerated individuals with mental illness in MCJ are housed with the rest of the incarcerated population and not given the space that they need.7 The conditions for incarcerated individuals suffering from mental health issues must be improved.

Overcrowding has also led to a myriad of issues, such as restricted access to basic necessities, poor sanitary conditions, and insufficient rehabilitation services.8 In addition, marginalized groups, including people of color and low-income individuals, have historically been incarcerated at disproportionate rates. Many of these were due to wrongful convictions or non-violent drug-related offenses. Black individuals are 7 times more likely than white individuals to be wrongfully convicted of serious crimes.9 This trend is reflected in the LA jail system, with a population that is 55% Hispanic and 29% Black.10 It is clear that the negative effects of incarceration are disproportionately felt in these communities.

Since 2020, the Jail Closure Implementation Team has worked on reducing the jail population. Other initiatives include issuing citations instead of detention for minor charges, aggressive pretrial releases of individuals primarily charged with non-violent felonies, and increased access to diversion programs.

Issue Analysis

In 2015, the LA jail system was placed under a legal settlement by the DOJ to address the inadequate mental health care being administered. The county was required to provide people in high-observation housing—those who are severely mentally ill or who have to be checked on every fifteen minutes—with 10 hours of out-of-cell time and 10 hours of therapeutic programming per week. The DOJ monitor reported in September 2022 that MCJ was not meeting these standards.11 In response, the county asked to push the deadlines for these requirements to 2026.

The LA County Justice Care and Opportunities Department released a jail closure update on January 30th, 2024. As part of their 5 year jail closure plan, they will reduce the jail’s population to 7,169 inhabitants. This depopulation would involve building 1,200 community beds per year to hold individuals as an alternative to custody. This would prove beneficial, as data has shown that individuals in community beds decrease their annual recidivism rate from 40% to 10%. Other interventions, such as quicker pretrial releases and faster care processing could accelerate jail releases by 50%. In order to make closure proceed smoothly, there must also be a guarantee that the custody space adjacent to the Inmate Reception Center will comply with DOJ Settlement Agreements.12

Options

Supporting Rehabilitative Services and Mental Healthcare

To improve the quality of rehabilitative services and mental healthcare in MCJ, funds for the Forensic In-Patient (FIP) Step Down program should be increased. FIP Step Down provides inmates with a supportive environment to help improve mental and behavioral health. The program increases unrestrained out-of-cell time to promote and incentivize prosocial behavior. Increasing funding for the program is crucial in improving mental healthcare for inmates. The funds should be used to increase the number of FIP pods in the jail, which are spaces for inmates to participate in therapeutic activities such as arts and crafts. By increasing funding for this program, more inmates can access rehabilitative services.

Furthermore, funding should also go toward compensating the Mental Health Assistants (MHA), who are incarcerated individuals that help care for and mentor other patients. This will increase the number of inmates involved in the program. These two suggestions are crucial to facilitating the mental wellness of the population of MCJ and will also lead to lower recidivism rates.

Increasing Funding for Diversion Programs

Currently, MCJ cannot support the number of people living there. Investing in diversion programs has the potential to significantly reduce the incarcerated population. It will also provide mental health services that more efficiently treat individuals and will reduce recidivism. Currently, only $1 million are allocated to diversion programs despite a $43.4 billion budget.13

One solution is to increase investment in the Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR), an office within the LA County Department of Health Services. It works on implementing programs to divert people with serious mental, physical, and behavioral health needs out of LA County Jails and into community-based care. ODR also works to prevent people from getting arrested and provides alternatives to incarceration for people who have already been arrested. These initiatives would allow detainees to be transferred from MCJ to other non-carceral facilities better equipped to handle individual needs. Since the program started in 2015, ODR has successfully removed over 10,000 people from LA County jails and placed them in community-based care facilities.

ODR programming is unique because of the number of people involved in each step of a person’s journey through the program. Each of these different members plays an essential role in the success of ODR programming, from treating clients during the program to assisting them with finding opportunities afterward. As many people working in healthcare believe, effective therapy cannot happen in jail because it is inherently a traumatic experience.14 Investing in diversion programs would address this issue by transferring individuals away from jails, which would also help combat overcrowding problems.

Providing Basic Necessities and Improving Hygiene Conditions

A 2022 inspection by the Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections (SBCII) revealed that conditions at MCJ were unsatisfactory and needed corrective action in every applicable category.15 This can be attributed to the fact that during their stay at MCJ, incarcerated individuals are not guaranteed access to basic necessities, such as soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and razors. It must be the standard for incarcerated individuals to receive these items. Money should be invested in expanding access to these supplies to promote the well-being of incarcerated people while they are at MCJ.

In addition to a lack of basic hygienic products, MCJ has several other issues that are worsening the already inhumane conditions. For example, rat traps and rat feces were present in showers and some cells.16 Infrastructural flaws have also led to toilets that are permanently broken, leading to overflowing pipes and other hygienic problems.17 Individuals within the jail need to be provided with clean living conditions. All these problems need to be addressed in order for inmates to live in humane conditions.

Recommendation

Funds should be reallocated from inmate welfare and narcotics enforcement and given to the expansion of diversion programs like the ODR. This will provide alternatives to incarceration for those who have been arrested and significantly reduce overcrowding in MCJ. Redistributing this funding and relocating inmates will lead to a reduced need for the reduced programs, making their budget cuts unimportant.

Conclusion

Even within its current budget, the ODR has relocated 10,000 people from MCJ to community-based care programs. The efficacy of diversion is apparent and makes it a top choice for addressing the issues within MCJ. Despite its success, diversion programs are significantly underfunded in LA County. LA County has continuously increased its funds allocated towards its Sheriff Department without meaningfully addressing the problems of police violence and deputy gang membership; this funding should instead go to the programs that address the crisis currently afflicting its jail systems. Reallocation of funds towards diversion programs would represent a step toward much-needed improvements to the LA prison system.

Sources

1 “ACLU Releases Expert’s Report on Nightmarish Conditions at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.” American Civil Liberties Union, April 13, 2009. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-releases-experts-report-nightmarish-conditions-mens-central-jail-los-angele s.

2 McCann, Sam. “‘The County Jail Has Always Been a Murder Ground’: Stories from Men’s County Jail” Vera Institute of Justice, March 27, 2024. https://www.vera.org/news/stories-from-mens-central-jail.

3 O’Connor, Meg. “Los Angeles Is Locking up More People with Mental Illness than Ever before. Why?” USC Center for Health Journalism, October 14, 2022. https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/insights/los-angeles-locking-more-people-mental-illness-ever-why.

4 O’Connor, Meg. “In La Jails, Mentally Ill People Are Chained to Tables and Rarely Get Psychiatric Care.” USC Center for Health Journalism, March 10, 2023. https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/reporting/la-jails-mentally-ill-people-are-chained-tables-and-rarely-g et-psychiatric-care.

5 Ibid “In LA Jails, Mentally Ill People Are Chained to Tables and Rarely Get Psychiatric Care.”

6 Ibid “In LA Jails, Mentally Ill People Are Chained to Tables and Rarely Get Psychiatric Care.”

7 Ibid “In LA Jails, Mentally Ill People Are Chained to Tables and Rarely Get Psychiatric Care.”

8 Ibid “ACLU Releases Expert’s Report on Nightmarish Conditions at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.”

9 “Race and Wrongful Convictions.” Michigan University. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/Race-and-Wrongful-Convictions.aspx.

10 “Reported Crimes by Jurisdiction Los Angeles County, 2013.” Los Angeles Almanac. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://www.laalmanac.com/crime/cr03_13.php.

11 Ibid “In LA Jails, Mentally Ill People Are Chained to Tables and Rarely Get Psychiatric Care.”

12 “Jail Closure Implementation Team Fifth Quarterly Report.” Los Angeles County, June 22, 2021. https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/bc/1152729_ISD90-DayReportBackonWorkerOwnerInitiative_Dec2023_.pdf.

13 “2023-24 Final Budget.” Los Angeles County, 2023. https://ceo.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/LA-County-2023-24-Final-Budget-Book.pdf.

14 Ibid “In LA Jails, Mentally Ill People Are Chained to Tables and Rarely Get Psychiatric Care.”

15 Miller, Eric, and Mary Veral. “October 9, 2023, Men’s Central Jail (MCJ), Inspection Report.” Los Angeles County, October 9, 2023. https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/commissionpublications/minutes/1153211_POC23-0173.pdf.16 Ibid “October 9, 2023, Men’s Central Jail (MCJ), Inspection Report.”

17 Ibid “October 9, 2023, Men’s Central Jail (MCJ), Inspection Report.”

Edited Final Policy Memo Winter 2024- Men’s Central Jail .pdf

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