The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a plan to divert at least 1,000 low-level, mentally-ill inmates out of jails and into a new facility focused on mental health treatment.
Supervisors also voted on Tuesday, Aug 11, to move forward with construction of the Consolidated Correctional Treatment Facility a new jail downtown that will hold 3,885 inmates requiring mental health and substance abuse services. It would replace the deteriorating Men’s Central Jail, an often overcrowded facility that was built in 1963.
The board’s move Tuesday came one week following the county’s agreement on a settlement with the federal government mandating that a federal judge oversees how mentally ill inmates in the county’s jails are treated. It also comes as a response to a heating debate regarding the county’s incarceration of inmates, particularly the mentally ill, who constitute 20 percent of the approximately 17,000 individuals behind bars.
The newly approved facility, which is expected to come at a price tag of more than $1 billion and take six to eight years to build, is designed to hold the one out of five inmates requiring care for mental health or addiction issues.
In June, the board stopped construction of the $2 billion project to reconsider the number of inmates it would house. Originally, the plan supervisors approved last year was designed to include 4,885 beds.
On Tuesday, each supervisor proposed a different number of beds: Michael Antonovich wanted 4,600 beds; Hilda Solis’ plan was for 3,243 beds; Sheila Kuehl wanted 3,885. Ultimately, with support from Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas, Kuehl’s proposal was approved in a 3-1 vote.
Supervisor Don Knabe cast the lone opposing vote, while Solis abstained.
“This is [a] historic attempt by this county to do something different, to turn around a very unwieldy and huge ship that has primarily been about incarceration, incarceration, incarceration, and it hasn’t worked,” Kuehl said.
She also said her plan is based on a larger number of offenders being placed in treatment instead of behind bars, the Times reported.
“I see those two things moving forward in tandem,” she said of mental health diversion and the new jail, according to the Times. “I’m trying to find a way to change this system, but I am not fantasizing that it changes in a minute.”
Ridley-Thomas also voiced support for diverting low-level, non-violent mentally ill inmates to non-jail programs, The Associated Press reported.
“We know diversion is the right thing to do, and to do so with taxpayer dollars in a prudent and effective way,” he said. “We declare it is a superior alternative to incarceration.”
At Men’s Central Jail, the Times reports that the environment is so oppressive that jail officials conclude it increases inmates’ risk of suicide. It has also been the site of violence, including inmate beatings and inmate-on-inmate killings.
Supervisors had to meet a deadline to continue construction of the jail facilities so the county would remain eligible for a $100 grant from the state for the construction of a women’s jail in Lancaster at the Mira Loma Correctional Facility. The board also voted Tuesday to move forward with the women’s project, which the State Public Works Board is slated to consider on Monday, Aug. 17.
The plan for the new facility has received criticism from a number of individuals, including supervisors who called it an “abomination” for having a smaller number of beds than before.
Sheriff’s Department Executive Officer Neal Tyler, who spoke for Sheriff Jim McDonnell at the meeting, said the sheriff sought a facility with 4,860 beds due to overcrowding in other jails.
“He’s trying to make sure that we have the flexibility going into a period of time two decades hence to change our decision-making to some extent without spending more money later or incurring the risk of litigation because of unconstitutional jailing,” Tyler said, according to the Times.
Assistant Sheriff Terri McDonald echoed Tyler’s position by telling the board that 3,885 beds would be insufficient space for all mentally-ill inmates, The Associated Press reported.
Peter Eliasberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, touted the diversion program but criticized supervisors for attaching the motion on the jail construction plan to the jail diversion plan, the news agency reported. He threatened a lawsuit over the vote, according to the Times.
“This is an enormous construction project,” he told the board. “It should not be rushed ahead, no matter how much this board is afraid of losing money for Mira Loma.”
The Lancaster facility will replace the overcrowded lockup in Lynwood and will focus on education and rehabilitation, the Times reported. (With reports from Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press)
