by Sergio Rodriguez Camarena, MPA '24 for Annotations Blog
On September 8, 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit alleging “abysmal conditions” at the Inmate Reception Center, Los Angeles County Jail’s booking center. The ACLU alleged that people at the Center, most of whom are houseless and/or have mental health issues, were chained to benches or chairs for days on end and forced to defecate and urinate on themselves.
This story comes as no surprise to many in the community who have been fighting to close one of LA County’s most notoriously inhumane jails: Men’s Central Jail (MCJ). Men’s Central Jail is an old, decrepit windowless facility in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles plagued with high and unchecked deputy violence towards incarcerated individuals and a rampant culture of fear and retaliation. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors motioned on July 7, 2020 to create a workgroup to provide a plan describing how to close MCJ within one year. The plan to close MCJ was submitted to the Board on March 30, 2021.
625 days later, the jail still stands.
Since the release of the plan to close MCJ, the LA County Board of Supervisors has delayed its closure by not investing in the infrastructure needed to divert people out of county jails; instead, it has been preoccupied with creating more bureaucratic hurdles to stall its closure. For example, on June 22, 2021, the County created the Jail Closure Implementation Team (JCIT). On August 10, 2021, the County allocated $12.7 million in JCIT programming for the next two years; however, as of their latest progress report, they have yet to gain any traction in the closure of Men’s Central Jail. Instead, JCIT has proven to be another bureaucratic hurdle to overcome rather than a means of accelerating the closing of MCJ. In addition, the LA County Board of Supervisors has failed to commit to a timeline of closure and even commissioned a problematic report from the JFA Institute which detracted from the closure of MCJ, despite the County having already committed to closing the jail within a year.
LA County has the largest jail system in the world. Its current jail population of 14,876 is the largest in the country and almost 85% of that population is Black or Hispanic/Latinx. LA County jails are overcrowded; as of the writing of this article, they are nearly 20% over capacity. Almost 85% of people in LA County jails are Black or Hispanic/Latinx. Moreover, as of December 15, 2022, more than 45% of the total jail population is held pretrial, meaning they have not been convicted of a crime and are thus, legally innocent.
The County cannot close MCJ without addressing the need to decarcerate its pretrial population. LA County is one of the largest districts without a pretrial services agency - both New York City and Chicago have implemented pretrial services agencies where people who have been arrested can await their trial in the community rather than in a jail.
All that is left for the Board is to take concrete steps and make real-life investments to fulfill their commitment to closing the jail.
While some people may be wary of having people await trial out in their communities, it is important to note that decreasing pretrial incarceration does not compromise public safety. On the contrary, it may actually produce the beneficial public safety outcomes we want. A study by Arnold Ventures found that people who were detained pretrial, even for 24 hours, were more likely to be rearrested in the two years following that arrest than those who weren’t held pretrial. Keeping people out of jail – and instead at home, connected with their communities, family members, employment, housing, and services – is the most effective way to ensure their well-being.
A huge deterrent in creating a county-wide pretrial services agency has always been funding. However, last year, Los Angeles County received $1.9 billion in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). These funds can be used to jumpstart the creation of a pretrial services agency that would decrease the number of people incarcerated and enable the closure of MCJ.
All that is left for the Board is to take concrete steps and make real-life investments to fulfill their commitment to closing the jail. The Board of Supervisors has all the tools needed to close MCJ, including a detailed plan of decarceration put forth by community members and LA County stakeholders, including the Sheriff’s Department that oversees the jails. They also have the appropriate funding to jumpstart a pretrial services agency through ARPA. Now, more than ever, we can signal to the rest of the state and the country that LA County can lead efforts to decarcerate and rectify the overcriminalization of many of LA County’s most vulnerable populations.
Meet the Author: Sergio Rodriguez Camarena
Sergio Rodriguez Camarena (he/him/his) is an MPA '24 student at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. He is passionate about abolitionist and redistributive policies that aim to create spaces of freedom and liberation for everyone, especially undocuqueer folx. Prior to SPIA, Sergio worked as a Program Analyst II in Vera's California Team. His work focused primarily on supporting Los Angeles County’s efforts to expand alternatives to incarceration, pretrial diversion, and community-based systems of care. Sergio was born in Sayula, Jalisco, México, but calls Santa Ana, California home. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in international relations with a minor in French from Pomona College and in his free time, he loves to spread queer joy via dancing, painting, and hosting community dinners.