2.3 BILLION Reasons Los Angeles Must Stop Building Jails

These days when you search the news for “Los Angeles County Jail” you are bombarded with articles about racist emails from a top sheriff’s official, use of force increasing by 40%, deputies being convicted of assault, Former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka’s conviction, Former Sheriff Lee Baca’s conviction, and the deaths of Matrice Richardson and Wakiesha Wilson.

If you look hard hidden within all of the news about sheriff brutality you can find a sentence here and there about the fact that Los Angeles County is moving forward with a plan to build two more jails to house this rampant culture of violence.

Let’s be clear, stopping this jail plan is not about money – it is about people’s lives. But, just to show how incredibly negligent the county is, let’s talk about money for a minute…

Los Angeles County’s proposed budget for the next year includes $118 million dollars for a new women’s jail to be built in the toxic Mira Loma site in Lancaster, more than 80 miles away from the current location in Lynwood, and another $5 million towards the planning of a new Men’s Central Jail, marketed as a “mental health jail.” The entire project is estimated to cost at least $2.3 BILLION dollars, but if the LASD has it their way it’ll cost even more. In an effort to ramp up the jail plan the sheriff’s department has been doing their own deal on the state level, scheming to get an additional BILLION dollars to take on 600 state prisoners within the county jails. That would make the jail expansion cost $3.5 BILLION at the minimum.

The LASD and the county would like to have you believe that they are “reforming,” “building trust,” and “focusing on alternatives,” but the fact is that although the county is planning on investing a few million towards mental health and reentry projects, they have not yet taken the multi-billion dollar jail plan off the table.

A perfect example of the sheriff department’s eagerness to expand the largest jail system in the world is the recent MacArthur grant. The MacArthur Foundation just awarded 11 grants ranging from $1.5 to $3.5 million to reduce jail populations. New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans were among the winners. Los Angeles was not. They instead received a smaller, lower-tier award of $150,000. Our team that looked over the LASD application theorize that it was deliberately flubbed.

There is hope. First of all, the budget has not been approved and you better believe we will be at the County Board of Supervisors meetings in full force advocating for funding community solutions. Second, the supervisors do not seem keen on accepting this sheriff-lead state deal. And third, just look at San Francisco! The people there were successful in stopping the jail plan.

Let’s change the news headlines and #STOP2BILLIONJAIL!

LA County Board of Supervisors agendas are often posted last minute so keep your Tuesday days flexible and follow us on Facebook or Twitter and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on actions. In the meantime contact your supervisor and tell them to stop the 2 billion dollar jail plan and invest in mental health diversion and community solutions! We. Will. Win.

Stay tuned to our blog for big updates regarding the Civilian Oversight Commission this month!

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Sneaking a $2 Billion Jail Construction Project into a Jail Diversion Vote

On August 11th the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to spend upwards of $2 billion to build two new jail facilities. The vote was illegal. According to the Brown Act, all public meetings require items to be publicly placed on the agenda at least 72 hours before the meeting, not read into the agenda the day of.

Many of us attended the board meeting that morning with hopes of celebrating a motion – spearheaded by Supervisor Ridley-Thomas and Supervisor Kuehl – to secure $100 million for an Office of Diversion and diversion infrastructure such as supportive housing. This would have been a victory in the wake of the previous meeting where both Supervisor Knabe and District Attorney Jackie Lacey felt the need to emphasize that jail diversion is not jail reduction. The ongoing, and at times compulsive, narrative that jail alternatives won’t reduce the jail population is frustrating and ungrounded. Sneaking a $2 billion jail construction project into a jail diversion vote shows us that this logic is not only faulty, it’s compulsive.

Last week Mike Antonovich introduced a motion to re-vote on the issue of an Office of Diversion and jail construction. This swift move to correct the Brown Act violation was appropriately initiated by Supervisor Antonovich as he kicked off the illegal August 11th vote by reading in his jail construction proposal. The motion to vote on the issues again was approved while there are still plenty of unanswered questions. For example:

1. How much will these proposed facilities actually cost the county?

2. A report by Health Management Associates stated that the jail population would grow beyond current capacity if the county did nothing. Since the county is funding diversion efforts and since the sheriff’s department has received a state grant to reduce the county jail population by 15%, why not maximize this momentum and build community alternatives?

3. Why is 50% of the jail population being held on exuberant bail schedules when they could be subject to a risk-based pre-trial release program?

4. Why is the county considering building a women’s jail when jails have only produced medical negligence and abuse for people housed in women’s facilities?

These are just a few of the unanswered questions that stain any talk of jail construction.

On September 1st we will converge again on the Hall of Administration where the supervisors will again vote. As of now the county is moving forward with these two issues as one agenda item. Both diversion and jail construction should be dealt with separately but follow one single agenda: optimize diversion efforts for Black and Brown people, women, and those with mental health conditions as a long term jail reduction strategy.

For more info on this please click to watch our latest video and read our new report on the women’s jail.

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Female Incarceration at CRDF

Incarceration at Century Regional Detention Facility (CRDF, “Lynwood”, or simply “the women’s jail”) comes in all colors, brown, black and white – but those are not the colors you need to worry about. The color green, the men and women in Los Angeles County Sheriff uniforms, that will scare you.

LASD does not keep track of how many women are incarcerated each year in the facility. Neither does the facility allow an inmate a secured avenue for filing complaints against officers and staff. I personally know this to be fact. While incarcerated for six months at CRDF I was subjected to horrors and criminal acts perpetrated against me and others by LASD. I saw over-medication, inhumane treatment, verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, drugs, (heroin, cocaine, and numerous prescription pills being sold inside), sexual favors, and numerous (too many to count) coverups perpetuated and inflicted by deputies against prisoners, including the mentally disabled. These issues affect every female in that facility. I was kicked out less then eight hours after verbally complaining to LASD about a staff member exposing his penis to me in the medical module during a shoulder x-ray. At 2 a.m. I was cut loose in the dark, no money, no way home.

CRDF is an institution run for profit, not rehabilitation. The officers that work inside have no accountability for the criminal acts that they commit. I have long stated these facts, filed numerous complaints with the FBI, Governor Schwarzenegger, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Most recently again in October 2014 to Chief David Fender who promised an inquiry and research in a “timely manner”. Neither Chief Fender nor Lieutenant Vic Allende have returned my calls for concern regarding an investigation into the cruelty I was subjected to and the cruelty so many others currently endure.

Where is our liberty and justice for all?

women Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Dignity and Power Now

Let’s change the news headlines and #STOP2BILLIONJAIL!