From [HERE] Another person has died in Los Angeles County jails, marking the 27th in-custody death so far this year and the 72nd since the start of 2023.

These tragedies underscore the urgency for Los Angeles County to stop the cycle of death plaguing its jails. That demands honoring the commitment the board of supervisors made in 2021 to close Men's Central Jail.

The staggering number of deaths far exceeds that of New York City Department of Correction facilities, where the rising number of deaths at the Rikers Island jail complex has led to a mounting crisis that has received nationwide attention.

The death toll in LA jails—the nation’s largest jail system—is driven by severe overcrowding, pervasive neglect and mistreatment, inadequate care inside jails, and a failure to offer robust alternatives to incarceration. A horrifying video smuggled out of Men’s Central Jail in June 2023, which shows jail staff neglecting to intervene in a violent assault that stretched for more than 10 minutes, underscores the urgent need to reduce the jail population and expand community-based alternatives to incarceration.

“Our jails are killing people—disproportionately Black and Latino men who are held pretrial—because of a culture of impunity and neglect within the LA County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jails,” said Michelle Parris, program director of Vera California. “Jail has become the county’s default response to poverty, houselessness, and other unmet needs, and the people held in them are subjected to foul conditions and cruel treatment. Our communities would be safer if we address the root causes of instability by investing in community-based alternatives to incarceration that are proven to work, and that do not result in a new death every week.”

What’s killing people in LA County jails?

Overcrowded facilities are the most significant single factor driving jail deaths in Los Angeles. The jail system has operated as high as 16.7 percent over capacity since the start of last year. This means that not only are the facilities physically crowded, but resources are also being stretched beyond their breaking point.

The issues begin in intake, where newly incarcerated people are processed. People who have passed through the intake facilities have described them as “a living hell,” where people are left to sleep without bedding or blankets on floors covered in garbage and waste.

Beyond the squalid and cramped conditions, overcrowded jails also limit access to resources, especially medical care. Incarcerated people requesting medical care say they have faced cruel or indifferent treatment from jail staff. In particular, Los Angeles County jails provide horrendous standards of mental health care—despite being the largest provider of mental health care in the United States, with 45 percentof people currently detained there diagnosed with mental health conditions. People are chained to tables by jail staff, endure filthy living conditions, and sometimes do not even receive clothing. The county has also failed to adequately staff its jails with mental health care providers; in February 2023, 44 percent of jail mental health staff positions were vacant.

Severe conditions in the county’s jails provoked a visit from a panel appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in April 2023 and, in May, triggered protests by health care workers in the jails, who say that staffing shortages have left them unable to provide care to patients in these dangerously overcrowded facilities. [MORE]