Unanimous Vote Closes Men’s Central Jail and Funds Alternatives to Incarceration

09 Jul Unanimous Vote Closes Men’s Central Jail and Funds Alternatives to Incarceration

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to close Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail within a year and create a permanent, dedicated Alternatives to Incarceration fund. We appreciate Supervisors Solis and Kuehl for taking the initiative to bring an end to the ignominious Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail.

These actions mark a transition point that will move us considerably closer toward a more just Los Angeles County. The Justice Equity Alliance (LA Voice, Community Coalition, and Advancement Project California) commends the Board for taking bold action to commit to a care first, jail last approach, and expresses thanks to all the activists and advocates who made this victory possible.

“Closing Men’s Central Jail is long overdue,” said Patricia Guerra, Director of Organizing at Community Coalition. “The County Board of Supervisors must engage with those most proximate to the root causes of the problem. It is time to invest in a safety net that centers Black people and poor working communities impacted by incarceration.”

Closing this house of horrors – where 80 percent of the population is Black or Latinx, more than 40 percent are awaiting trial, and over 33 percent have a mental illness – advances pandemic-era public health and furthers the basic tenets of racial justice that this moment demands.

“LA Voice has stood with Black Lives Matter and other groups to demand exactly this kind of moral courage in reimagining public safety,” said Zach Hoover, Executive Director of LA Voice. “We are in the midst of a crisis that leaves Black and Brown people at the mercy of an unjust system. Locking down human dignity hasn’t worked. Lifting up communities with these resources will.”

Reducing jail capacity is crucial to rectifying our racially unjust incarceration system. But for care-first, jails last to truly mean something, we need an immediate, large-scale investment to quickly build up alternative services and supports. The hundreds of millions of dollars reclaimed by significantly reducing the prison population would go far in supporting this new approach to community safety and wellness.

While the Board’s investments in the Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR) and Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) Initiative are promising, hard-won funding must be invested in the most effective means of care. County investments must be equitable and driven by communities that have been underserved and over-policed. Our Justice Equity Needs Index (JENI) is an invaluable, data-driven tool that, if adopted, would ensure highest-need communities get the necessary resources like investing in mental healthcare, substance abuse treatment, job training programs, and housing. 

“Investing in promising alternatives such as the ATI Initiative and ODR get us closer to that goal of care first,” said Daniel Wherley, Senior Policy and Research Analyst at Advancement Project California. “Now we must ensure that any plan going forward is guided by those most impacted by generations of over-policing and underinvestment – low-income communities of color.”

The protests we see in the streets are a display of dire need to finally show we care. Our residents require that we push forward with health and racial justice strategies and that their voice is heard and heeded. That is the only way we can ensure safer communities for all.