Dignity and Power now is an anchor organization for JusticeLA, a coalition of organizations and individuals working with directly impacted communities formed to reclaim, reimagine, and reinvest the $3.5 billion that LA County has allocated to building two new jails. We as JusticeLA are calling for a moratorium on jail construction and expansion in order to fully realize the promise of diversion and re-entry through a justice reinvestment strategy for Los Angeles.

The LA County Jail plan, officially released in April 2014 by the LA County Board of Supervisors, is a plan to build two new jails. The first is what they’re referring to as a “mental health jail” in downtown Los Angeles at the current site of Men’s Central Jail called Consolidated Correctional Treatment Facility. The second is a women’s jail in Lancaster, CA at the site of the old Mira Loma Detention Center, which they’re referring to as a “campus-like facility” and calling the Mira Loma Detention Center for Women. The county building these jails is problematic in so many ways. The cost of building these jails is projected to exceed $3.5 billion dollars. JusticeLA says put that money into the communities instead.

Sign the ACLU petition to stop the wasteful jail construction project.
For more info and to see the organizations that make up JusticeLA visit justicelanow.org.

In September of 2017 JusticeLA put on a historic protest where we placed 100 replica jail beds in the middle of Temple Street in downtown Los Angeles in front of Kenneth Hahn Hall, where the LA County Board of Supervisors meet. Check out our video below.