(July 18, 2013) Los Angeles County officials – worried about the feds cracking down on the deplorable conditions for inmates with mental illness – have come up with a $1 billion-plus solution: build a bigger jail (“LA Supervisors agree to act on billion-dollar jail renovation,” Los Angeles Times, July 16).
The Board of Supervisors this week voted unanimously to renovate the Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail to reduce crowding and increase mental-health services for prisoners. The number of jail beds will not be changed.
Sheriff Lee Baca has said for decades that he runs the nation’s largest mental hospital – the Los Angeles County jail. In his related story, Times columnist Steve Lopez describes inmates with mental illness who’ve been jailed there so many times they’ve lost count (“It's a crime to house the mentally ill this way,” Los Angeles Times, July 17).
In 2004, LA County implemented Laura’s Law (California's assisted outpatient treatment/AOT law) on a limited basis. The program has already produced a 78% reduction in incarcerations among the participants.
LA County should expand its pilot program to help more of its mentally ill citizens avoid re-arrest and re-incarceration. The focus should be on treating those suffering from severe mental illness rather than expanding jail space to warehouse them better.
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