Los Angeles Board Moves Closer to Overhauling County Jail

Men's Central in Los Angeles on Oct.15, 2003. David McNew/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES—As Los Angeles County moves closer to reimagining the criminal justice system and closing the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, the Board of Supervisors passed a motion Tuesday to create a new justice reform department that will adopt and centralize incarceration alternatives to avert people away from the jail system.

The motion brought forth by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl will direct the county CEO to report back in 90 days with a staffing plan to catapult the Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department, which will be the county’s central hub for programs created to levy their “Care First, Justice Last” initiative (pdf).

The initiative seeks to divert those with mental illnesses, the homeless, and substance abuse away from jails, claiming that the justice system is “ill-equipped” to respond to these conditions.

“Unfortunately, as this hard work has progressed, it has become clear that standing up programs and housing advisory bodies through multiple departments has not integrated service delivery to the extent needed to achieve true justice reform,” the motion reads (pdf). “The system that is meant to serve the most vulnerable becomes too cumbersome to deliver the integrated, holistic services that our county residents need.”

Supervisors also requested that the county CEO compile a separate report on the planned July introduction of the Department of Youth Development—made up of community-based organizations that seek to divert minors from the jail system upon arrest—and how it will be coupled with the county’s Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department, in addition to developing a Justice Advisory Board. This board would be comprised of members from existing advisory bodies the county currently employs.

In 2015, the board adopted the Office of Diversion and Reentry, which is a division focused on harm-reduction and jail-based diversion programs. But Kuehl said this is only one part of overhauling the county’s criminal justice system and will be an addition to the “Care First, Justice Last” process.

Kuehl wrote in the motion that “the County repeatedly designs, develops, and implements strategies and programs that impact the periphery but rarely reach the center of service-delivery challenges,” and that this central department will cut through bureaucracy within the county system.

“But if we stop for a moment of critical reflection, we have to really acknowledge that process is not the same as progress,” Kuehl said during the board meeting. “And what we need now is progress, we need movement. ... It’s time to make things happen, and to do that, in my humble opinion, we have to improve our county infrastructure.”

But even proponents of an overhauled criminal justice system opposed Kuehl’s motion. Several public comments submitted, including a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said the county should focus on the resources it already has in place—such as the Office of Diversion and Reentry—to strengthen the “Care First, Justice Last” initiative.

“A new Department that completely reshapes the provision of service in the County cannot be established on such a short timeline without guidance from those who are invested and working toward the Care First vision,” the ACLU wrote in a letter sent to the supervisors (pdf).

Justice LA, a coalition of organizations aiming to halt the expansion of jails, sent an email to the board saying that “while this motion seeks to address the need for pretrial services independent of probation, it underutilizes existing county infrastructure and dismantles effective health driven models.”

The county jail houses more than 14,000 inmates daily, according to the last count in 2020.

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva said during a Facebook Live on March 2 that supervisors would likely fund the “Care First, Justice Last” initiative through budget cuts from the sheriff’s department.

“We’re a part of the criminal justice system, but obviously we have no part in any of this,” Villanueva said. “In fact, they want to hire consultants to engage with existing advisory bodies.”

Steve Cooley, former Los Angeles District Attorney from 2000 to 2012, told The Epoch Times that the board’s philosophy towards jails is based “upon failed ideology.”

“The criminal justice system requires a place to house pre-trial detainees, which are some of the most violent criminals in society,” he said.