‍Why incarcerating people in crisis deepens harm — and what Los Angeles must do instead

May and June bring an annual wave of mental health awareness — social media posts, campaign graphics, event panels. Then July comes, and the conversation quiets. But for people living with mental health needs, the crisis doesn't follow a calendar. Resources exist, yet funding gaps and access barriers keep care out of reach for those who need it most. And when the system fails them, the default response is too often a jail cell — where they are met not with compassion, but criminalization. Instead of care, people get cages. Instead of treatment, they get punishment. 

Mental illness should never be a pathway to incarceration. This isn't an accident, it's the result of deliberate policy choices that defund mental health services, while pouring billions into mass incarceration. No matter the cost. No matter the lives lost. And it has to end.

The Data Is Clear: Jails Have Become Our Largest Mental Health Facilities

In Los Angeles County alone, nearly half of people in jail have mental health needs. LA County operates the largest jail system in the world — and it has become, by default, one of the largest mental health facilities in the country. That is not a success story. That is a crisis.

A RAND study commissioned by LA County found that 61% of people in jail with mental health needs were appropriate candidates for diversion into community-based treatment. Yet that diversion rarely happens at the scale needed. Instead, people in crisis are booked, processed, and warehoused — emerging sicker, more traumatized, and more likely to return.

Why Jails Cannot and Should Not Treat Mental Illness

Jails are built for punishment and control, not healing. The conditions inside (overcrowding, isolation, abusive practices, inadequate care) worsen trauma rather than address it. Human rights experts have documented what people with mental health conditions actually experience behind bars: punishment for behavior driven by illness, solitary confinement, and no meaningful access to therapy or stabilization.

Cages are not treatment plans, nor a substitute for a clinician.

Most behaviors that bring people with untreated mental illness into contact with the criminal legal system like disorderly conduct, minor disturbances, or public crisis are symptoms of unmet needs, not threats to public safety. When we respond to those needs with handcuffs instead of healthcare, we deepen the harm and drain public resources without ever solving the problem.

Community-Based Mental Health Care Works — The Evidence Is There

The alternative isn't abstract. It exists, and it works.

Los Angeles County's Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR) offers housing and clinical support as alternatives to incarceration. People who go through ODR fare better, stay out of jail, and rebuild their lives. The outcomes speak for themselves.

After ODR enrollment:

• psychiatric hospitalizations decreased by 71%, and 
• 93–97% of participants were stably housed within 6 to 12 months. 

That's not a coincidence. That's what happens when people get the care they actually need.

At Dignity and Power Now, we believe that healing justice is essential to abolition. In 2025, our Community Care and Healing Program provided over 500 sessions of healing services to system impacted individuals such as therapy, massage, yoga, acupuncture delivered by a network of 29+ community healers. Last year, our Forever Rooted leadership program graduated 22 formerly incarcerated participants, with 58 people in active support groups. Since 2019, our Mutual Aid program has provided direct support via household goods, hygiene products, financial assistance, and connection to resources. These programs not only empower system-impacted individuals but center dignity at every step.

This is what investing in communities instead of cages looks like in practice. Solidarity not charity. Compassion instead of punishment.

The Policy Choice Behind the Crisis

The state continues to fund jails at far higher rates than mental health services, even when diversion programs cost less and deliver better results. This is not inevitable. It is a choice that we must challenge.

DPN has helped campaign for statewide abolition and serves as the anchor organization of the JusticeLA Coalition to:

• Stop LA County's $3.5 billion jail expansion plan. 
• Pass Measure J, which directs at least 10% of LA County's unrestricted revenues — nearly $1 billion when fully phased in — to community investment and alternatives to incarceration.
• Win the establishment of the LA County Jail Closure Implementation Team, securing concrete timelines for the closure of Men's Central Jail.
• Demand immediate action from LA County and LASD to address a growing crisis of in-custody deaths.

These efforts have recently led to a County commitment to funding the first year of the Men’s Central Jail closure plan, which designates most of the $24 million towards behavioral health services. 

This progress proves that change is possible. But the work is not finished until Men's Central is closed. People are still being jailed instead of treated. We are still fighting.

‍Awareness Means Nothing Without Action

On June 30, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will decide whether to approve funding for the first year of the Men's Central Jail closure plan. At stake is more than a budget line item. This vote will determine whether the County invests in the behavioral health services and community-based supports that people need to heal, or continues relying on incarceration as a response to crisis.

The evidence is clear. People struggling with mental health challenges are better served through housing, treatment, peer support, and community care than through jail cells. Yet too often, elected officials acknowledge this reality while failing to fund the solutions.

This vote is an opportunity to choose a different path.

When we say people deserve care instead of cages, we must also demand the public investments that make care possible. Funding the first year of the jail closure plan is one step toward turning that vision into reality.

The fight for mental health justice and the fight to close Men's Central Jail are inseparable. Both ask the same question: will Los Angeles continue investing in punishment, or will it invest in people?

On June 30, we need our community to show up and make that choice impossible to ignore.

What Los Angeles Must Do Now

The evidence is clear. People struggling with mental health challenges are better served through housing, treatment, peer support, and community care than through jail cells. Yet too often, elected officials acknowledge this reality while failing to fund the solutions.

Dignity and Power Now demands:

• ‍Investment in community-based mental health services — not more jail beds, not rebranded carceral facilities, not "mental health jails." Real investment in real care, delivered in communities.‍
• Alternatives to arrest and jail for people in crisis — including mobile crisis teams led by mental health professionals, not law enforcement.‍
• An end to using jails as the default response to mental illness — because a jail is a jail, no matter what you call it.‍
• Respect for human dignity and the right to care — not cages, not punishment, not dehumanization. Care.

Care Over Control. Healing Over Punishment.

We reject the lie that criminalizing people in crisis keeps communities safe. Community care protects life and dignity. When we fund healing rather than punishment, we build public safety rooted in compassion — not cruelty.

On June 30, join us in demanding that Los Angeles fully fund the first year of the Men's Central Jail closure plan and invest in the behavioral health services our communities deserve.

People experiencing mental illness deserve clinicians, not cops. Safe housing, not solitary confinement. Community, not cages.

Jails have no place in the life of someone in crisis. A just society invests in treatment, dignity, and pathways to healing.

Join us. Because we free us.

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