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Giant billboards, a mobile ad with video and digital messages and TV spots are part of a media blitz launched at a rally in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 16 by several groups demanding closure of Men’s Central Jail and more county mental health and drug addiction treatment beds.
The demands of protesters reflect an intractable problem that has frustrated the county, the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement for decades. At the heart of the problem: Should the jail close, there are no immediate alternatives available.
Nonetheless, the activist groups want to see fewer people who are mentally ill or addicted sitting in jail. Instead, they are asking the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to add 10,000 community mental health beds as part of an alternative to incarceration.
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“We want to divest from incarceration. We demand the L.A. County Board of Supervisors invest in care. Community care works,” said Matyos Kidane, organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network.
The groups acknowledge that the county Board of Supervisors are making new efforts to come up with a plan for closure of the outdated facility, as well as add more mental health beds. At a recent budget meeting, the county staff said more money is going toward alternatives to incarceration.
The county’s new 2024-2025 budget includes $626.4 million for the Care First, Community Investment programs known as CFCI, according to CEO Fesia Davenport. Davenport said the CFCI funding has increased by 89% since 2020. This includes $22.9 million in the current budget for better health care in county jails.
The county estimated it needs 250 more beds for people with mental illnesses who cannot live independently. Often they are released from jails or state hospitals and have no place to go, according to county officials. This is far short than the 10,000 beds demanded by the activist groups.
Several groups expressing their demands for more interim and permanent housing for the homeless and treatment for those experiencing mental health issues include: Dignity & Power Now, Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), Community Care Works and others.
One case cited by the groups is that of former NFL player Stanley Wilson Jr., who died while in custody at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in February 2023. He was arrested for trespassing. Attorneys for the family say he was suffering from a mental health condition.
“We want the county to bring online 10,000 community healthcare beds,” said Janet Asante, communications manager for Community Care Works, who led the rally on Wednesday. Protesters chanted “No more delays! Close MCJ!” beneath a billboard at Alameda and Main streets in northeast LA that called for closing the jail.
Asante said county supervisors agree with the groups that more health care facilities are needed. “Where the breakdown happens is in the implementation,” she said. “We are saying they need to make sure departments work together and bring in those beds.”
The supervisors on Oct. 1 held a meeting with department heads, who said they are applying for new Proposition 1 mental health dollars, a measure passed in March by voters. This could help with funding more mental health workers and facilities, officials told the board.
Supervisors could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. A formal, written request for comment from Sheriff Luna was filed on Wednesday afternoon but this news group had not yet received a response.
Asael Roblero, whose son, Asael Roblero Jr. 26, was put in Men’s Central Jail after what he said was a mental illness episode, said at the rally that his son waited almost a year to receive mental health treatment. “He was in an alternative program but it took so long,” said Roblero Sr., who lives in East Hollywood. Since then, his son has been locked up at Men’s Central Jail, he said.
The groups continue to demand that the Board of Supervisors make good on a June 22, 2021 motion adopted by the Board by a 4-1 vote to begin implementing plans to close Men’s Central Jail, an outdated facility that has been plagued with deaths and claims of abuse by guards.
So far in 2024, there have been 24 in-custody deaths at L.A. County jails. A recent death marked the 69th since the start of 2023, according to the group Vera California, which uses records obtained by the county to keep up its count.
A report delivered to the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 30 said it would take at least five years to close the jail. Time is needed to expedite cases of those awaiting trial. The county report estimated it would take 1,200 new beds each year to house inmates needing mental health care. Also, the county would have to remodel existing facilities to house more people.
The county estimated that 53% of Men’s Central Jail inmates have mental health conditions.
A frustrated Board of Supervisors removed the task of figuring out how to close the jail from its Justice, Care and Opportunities Department (JCOD) and is in the process of filling a new position. The employee would be in charge of finding a quicker way to close the facility.
“This is very much overdue,” Asante said. But she said in the meantime, there aren’t enough mental health services and that perpetuates abuse or neglect by guards and the criminalization of mental illness.
James Nelson, program and campaign manager for Dignity & Power Now, said he spent time in Men’s Central Jail in the 1980s and also was imprisoned for 29 years in state prison but was later released in 2014 after being found wrongfully convicted, he said.
He called the county jail, even back 40 or more years, “old, dirty and filthy.”
“If you did something they (guards) considered out of line, you would get beaten with their flashlight,” he said. He said for decades the public did not know about the beatings or abusive treatment. It took reports from county agencies and an ACLU report and lawsuit, eventually leaving the ACLU the court-appointed monitor for conditions inside the county’s jail system.
He said the point of protesting is to wake up the public to these out-of-sight wrongdoings to a population that often has no voice.
“Those in power should start acting on what they know is factual,” Nelson said.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna in September announced he will ban all so-called deputy gangs from the department, which includes those working at L.A. County Jails, which are run by the Sheriff’s Department. Asante called Luna’s plan “essentially toothless.”
Luna said participating in law enforcement gangs or association with hate groups could result in suspensions or prosecution. A report released by the Civilian Oversight Commission last year suggested that at least a half-dozen deputy gangs or cliques were active in the department, with their activities leading to more than $55 million in legal damages against the agency.
Luna indicated that deputies in cliques or in-department gangs only involve a small fraction of the force.
The activist groups’ billboards are located in downtown Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and on the 605 Freeway northbound in Baldwin Park.
Giant billboards, a mobile ad with video and digital messages and TV spots are part of a media blitz launched at a rally in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 16 by several groups demanding closure of Men’s Central Jail and more county mental health and drug addiction treatment beds.
The demands of protesters reflect an intractable problem that has frustrated the county, the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement for decades. At the heart of the problem: Should the jail close, there are no immediate alternatives available.
Nonetheless, the activist groups want to see fewer people who are mentally ill or addicted sitting in jail. Instead, they are asking the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to add 10,000 community mental health beds as part of an alternative to incarceration.
Expand
“We want to divest from incarceration. We demand the L.A. County Board of Supervisors invest in care. Community care works,” said Matyos Kidane, organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network.
The groups acknowledge that the county Board of Supervisors are making new efforts to come up with a plan for closure of the outdated facility, as well as add more mental health beds. At a recent budget meeting, the county staff said more money is going toward alternatives to incarceration.
The county’s new 2024-2025 budget includes $626.4 million for the Care First, Community Investment programs known as CFCI, according to CEO Fesia Davenport. Davenport said the CFCI funding has increased by 89% since 2020. This includes $22.9 million in the current budget for better health care in county jails.
The county estimated it needs 250 more beds for people with mental illnesses who cannot live independently. Often they are released from jails or state hospitals and have no place to go, according to county officials. This is far short than the 10,000 beds demanded by the activist groups.
Several groups expressing their demands for more interim and permanent housing for the homeless and treatment for those experiencing mental health issues include: Dignity & Power Now, Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), Community Care Works and others.
One case cited by the groups is that of former NFL player Stanley Wilson Jr., who died while in custody at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in February 2023. He was arrested for trespassing. Attorneys for the family say he was suffering from a mental health condition.
“We want the county to bring online 10,000 community healthcare beds,” said Janet Asante, communications manager for Community Care Works, who led the rally on Wednesday. Protesters chanted “No more delays! Close MCJ!” beneath a billboard at Alameda and Main streets in northeast LA that called for closing the jail.
Asante said county supervisors agree with the groups that more health care facilities are needed. “Where the breakdown happens is in the implementation,” she said. “We are saying they need to make sure departments work together and bring in those beds.”
The supervisors on Oct. 1 held a meeting with department heads, who said they are applying for new Proposition 1 mental health dollars, a measure passed in March by voters. This could help with funding more mental health workers and facilities, officials told the board.
Supervisors could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. A formal, written request for comment from Sheriff Luna was filed on Wednesday afternoon but this news group had not yet received a response.
Asael Roblero, whose son, Asael Roblero Jr. 26, was put in Men’s Central Jail after what he said was a mental illness episode, said at the rally that his son waited almost a year to receive mental health treatment. “He was in an alternative program but it took so long,” said Roblero Sr., who lives in East Hollywood. Since then, his son has been locked up at Men’s Central Jail, he said.
The groups continue to demand that the Board of Supervisors make good on a June 22, 2021 motion adopted by the Board by a 4-1 vote to begin implementing plans to close Men’s Central Jail, an outdated facility that has been plagued with deaths and claims of abuse by guards.
So far in 2024, there have been 24 in-custody deaths at L.A. County jails. A recent death marked the 69th since the start of 2023, according to the group Vera California, which uses records obtained by the county to keep up its count.
A report delivered to the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 30 said it would take at least five years to close the jail. Time is needed to expedite cases of those awaiting trial. The county report estimated it would take 1,200 new beds each year to house inmates needing mental health care. Also, the county would have to remodel existing facilities to house more people.
The county estimated that 53% of Men’s Central Jail inmates have mental health conditions.
A frustrated Board of Supervisors removed the task of figuring out how to close the jail from its Justice, Care and Opportunities Department (JCOD) and is in the process of filling a new position. The employee would be in charge of finding a quicker way to close the facility.
“This is very much overdue,” Asante said. But she said in the meantime, there aren’t enough mental health services and that perpetuates abuse or neglect by guards and the criminalization of mental illness.
James Nelson, program and campaign manager for Dignity & Power Now, said he spent time in Men’s Central Jail in the 1980s and also was imprisoned for 29 years in state prison but was later released in 2014 after being found wrongfully convicted, he said.
He called the county jail, even back 40 or more years, “old, dirty and filthy.”
“If you did something they (guards) considered out of line, you would get beaten with their flashlight,” he said. He said for decades the public did not know about the beatings or abusive treatment. It took reports from county agencies and an ACLU report and lawsuit, eventually leaving the ACLU the court-appointed monitor for conditions inside the county’s jail system.
He said the point of protesting is to wake up the public to these out-of-sight wrongdoings to a population that often has no voice.
“Those in power should start acting on what they know is factual,” Nelson said.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna in September announced he will ban all so-called deputy gangs from the department, which includes those working at L.A. County Jails, which are run by the Sheriff’s Department. Asante called Luna’s plan “essentially toothless.”
Luna said participating in law enforcement gangs or association with hate groups could result in suspensions or prosecution. A report released by the Civilian Oversight Commission last year suggested that at least a half-dozen deputy gangs or cliques were active in the department, with their activities leading to more than $55 million in legal damages against the agency.
Luna indicated that deputies in cliques or in-department gangs only involve a small fraction of the force.
The activist groups’ billboards are located in downtown Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and on the 605 Freeway northbound in Baldwin Park.
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
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