Justice LA Coalition members, and the Coalition as a whole, have spoken loud and clear since the inception of COVID-19 about the necessity of releasing people from carceral facilities in the County of Los Angeles due to the heightened risk of infection and death presented by COVID-19 for incarcerated people. As Justice LA and many public health and social justice leaders have cited since the beginning of the pandemic, people incarcerated in jails have no ability to socially distance due to the confined conditions people are held in. 

On March 27th, 2020, Justice LA released a letter imploring the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to take immediate, bold, and sustained action to release people who are being held pretrial in the Los Angeles County Jail. We reminded the Board that people being held pretrial are legally innocent.

In the months since the COVID-19 pandemic began to rage, Justice LA and its members have continued to fight for comprehensive pretrial reform at the California state level, as well as at the county level. This work has meant blocking racist, classist risk assessments that lead to increased pretrial incarceration, and instead, advocating for comprehensive pretrial reform that would ensure the presumption of innocence.

In addition, Justice LA invested fully in the Measure J effort at the LA County level, winning the campaign to direct at minimum 10% of the County’s unrestricted funds out of law enforcement and into alternatives to incarceration and systems of coordinated care. The dollars that we won to be re-allocated must be used to fund community-based services, including funding comprehensive County-wide pretrial services that are housed outside of the Los Angeles County Probation Department.

With the inauguration of newly-minted Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón,  Justice LA released a statement encouraging Gascón to advocate for comprehensive pretrial reform that would lead to releasing as many people incarcerated pretrial as possible. Instead of pretrial incarceration, we advocate for providing our people with support for behavioral health needs, support in their cases, and access to services that are not tied to Probation.

As COVID-19 surges across the County, with +13,652 news cases being reported countywide just yesterday, and ICU beds at 0% capacity, Justice LA again reiterates our demand to release people who are being held pretrial in the County of Los Angeles. There are no medical resources available to treat people impacted by this deadly wave of COVID: the need to safely release people is urgent. In the jails, the situation is even more dire. The UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars data project reflects a rapid upswing over the last month in the number of people infected with COVID-19 while incarcerated. 

Underscoring the importance of releasing as many people as possible to preserve human rights and community safety, the UCLA School of Law’s Bail Practicum has just penned a new report, titled “Counting the Days: The Story of Prolonged Detention During COVID-19.”

Using declarations from numerous community members who are incarcerated in LA County jails pretrial, and analyzing County data, the report shows that our community members are being incarcerated pretrial for longer periods during COVID-19 than they were prior to COVID-19.

The UCLA report states, “Hundreds, if not thousands of people, considered legally innocent, find their access to the courts and counsel, two of the most important rights in our criminal legal system, cut off. People are missing court hearings and experiencing lengthy trial delays, all while being exposed for increasingly longer periods of time in the jails, considered some of the deadliest congregate living settings in the country.”

In a press release accompanying the report, UCLA’s Bail Practicum shared critical data about these jumps in the length of pretrial incarceration, saying: “People incarcerated in Los Angeles County jails pretrial are being held for longer periods of time during the COVID-19 pandemic than prior to the pandemic. While 35% of the pretrial population in January had been in custody for six months or longer, in September it jumped to 41%.” This report data shows us that, rather than decarcerating, as public health experts call us to do during the pandemic, the County is holding people longer pretrial, thus violating their right to a speedy trial, and harming community safety by furthering conditions that increase the spread of COVID.

Even though the County is aware of the grave risk people incarcerated in the jails face during COVID-19, many County actors have exacerbated this crisis rather than take every action to protect people who they have a duty to serve. Litigation that was filed in April against the County by Justice LA member organizations like Dignity and Power Now and Youth Justice Coalition, as well as by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, has not led to any decrease in the jail population; in fact, the LA County Sheriff’s Department continues to book increasingly more people into custody during this dangerous time. Recently, a judge ordered San Quentin to be depopulated by 50%. 

Similarly, in a powerful litigation victory led by ACLU of Southern California, a judge ordered a 50% depopulation of Orange County as well. These judgments were based on public health experts’ opinions. Experts know that without these reductions in jail populations, community members’ lives are at risk. Lex Steppling, Director of Campaigns and Policy at Dignity and Power Now, remarks of the situation: “LA County cannot continue to let people die and risk more and more lives in service of political inertia.”

Los Angeles County can take action now, without a judge’s order, to reduce the jail population. The County managed to reduce jail populations by over five thousand people at the beginning of the pandemic, and they must do it once again.

 Alicia Virani, professor in the Bail Practicum at the UCLA School of Law, says, “What is most imperative at this moment in time, amidst the surge in COVID-19 rates, is that people are safely released into the community, are tested prior to being released to prevent community spread, and that in-custody trials are prioritized and safely carried out.”

We must follow the advice of public health experts and community leaders to ensure the safety of our incarcerated loved ones by moving to safely release people being held pretrial.

Read the UCLA report here:  http://bit.ly/CountingtheDays

Sign up for Justice LA’s e-blasts to take action with us, here.

LA County Must Act Immediately to Prevent COVID-19 Deaths in Jail System

March 15, 2020

Last Friday, JusticeLA joined over 40 local and statewide advocacy groups in demanding that Los Angeles County takes immediate action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 inside the county jail system and among our most vulnerable communities. 

Read the full letter here.

On the heels of two historic victories – the passing of Measure R and the adoption of the Los Angeles County Alternatives to Incarceration roadmap – community demands for decarceration have become ever more acute as COVID-19 spreads across Los Angeles County. LA County’s jails are the largest and among the most deadly in the country. Just last week, Raul Barreto, a beloved advocate and survivor of the youth probation system, lost his life in Men’s Central Jail. The overcrowded, unsanitary and violent conditions inside LA County jails cost human lives every year, and COVID-19 threatens to make these conditions even more deadly. While many of us in the free world are able to practice harm reduction measures to protect ourselves from this deadly virus, our community members caged inside the jails remain at the mercy of LA County leadership. The county must respond immediately and courageously to save lives. LA County should not have waited until a global pandemic threatened the lives of over 17,000 people in our jails in order to take decisive action. But now that the threat is at our doorstep, the county has no other choice but to expedite the release of our loved ones. For the sake of our family members and communities, we pray it is not too late.

#JusticeLA 

Want to support community’s demands? Join our call to action by signing your name now!

Algorithms Should Not Determine Freedom: MIT Researchers Affirm Community Demands.

July 17, 2019

The United States criminal legal system has created the world’s largest prison population and, through this mass incarceration, has destroyed countless lives and caused untold harm to Black, Brown and poor communities throughout the country. The injustice of this system is acute it’s pretrial detention practices, which hold accused people, who are legally innocent, locked in jails while awaiting trial, unless they have enough money to pay bail.
To their credit, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (BOS) and the California legislature have been attempting to reform this system. Unfortunately, both state and county have sought to replace money bail with an equally unfair and dangerous system — pretrial risk assessment. Risk assessment tools take discrete facts about an individual to create a profile and then compare that individual to large groups of people with similar profiles to estimate the likelihood the individual will do something bad in the future. These statistical estimates decide who goes free and who is jailed.

Today, data experts from leading academic institutions, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University sent the BOS a letter expressing “grave concerns” about these risk assessments tools, strongly warning against their use. The letter highlights how the tools use data such as people’s arrest records, criminal convictions, age, and sometimes even zip code, out of context, to assign risk scores that estimate their likelihood of missing court or being re-arrested.

The experts point out that this underlying data is “distorted” and functionally serves as proxies for race. They explain that “When tools conflate the likelihood of arrest for any reason with risk of violence, a large number of people will be labeled a threat to public safety without sufficient justification.” Understanding the well-documented history of discrimination by law enforcement, they explain that this over-estimation of danger will target people of color and poor people, risking increased pretrial incarceration rates and exacerbated racial inequalities.

#JusticeLA is a coalition of community organizations and advocacy groups mobilizing to create a safe and equitable society by elevating human needs and strengths over the punitive mass incarceration system. Our members, and grassroots leaders from impacted communities across the country, long ago recognized the danger of risk assessment tools based on our lived experience with redlining, racial profiling and other discriminatory practices.

The concerns raised by the academic experts echo the alarms #JusticeLA articulated a year ago in our letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors outlining the dangers of California Senate Bill 10 (SB10). SB10 replaced the money bail system with pretrial risk assessments, more judicial discretion and increased power to law enforcement.
We called on LA County to oppose SB10 and to reject the use of risk assessment tools in our local pretrial system. We warned that the implementation of such tools would dramatically increase the County’s already massive pretrial population. Since the passage of SB10 by the state legislature, the County’s own internal assessment predicted that it would more than double LA’s already largest in the world jail population.

Implementation of SB10 has been stalled, as the bail bond industry qualified a repeal referendum for the November 2020 election, in order to save a business model that has profited from the criminalization of Black, Brown and indigent communities for generations. Meanwhile, the risk assessment industry, led by private corporations, foundations and hedge-fund billionaires, seeks a new way to profit from mass incarceration, while claiming to support reform. Policymakers, drawn to its promise of technological efficiency, continue to ignore evidence of the mechanized racial profiling of the risk assessment tools.

#JusticeLA’s message remains clear: neither wealth nor profiling should determine a person’s freedom. Ending the exploitative money bail system has become a galvanizing issue; however, the larger goal of reducing our nation’s reliance on mass incarceration is obscured by myopic policies that rely on unvetted technology. The real call to action must be to preserve the presumption of innocence, a fundamental tenet of our legal system that has been transgressed for far too long.

LA County has a choice: proceed with risk assessment or heed these warnings; based on rigorous analysis and lived experience, now supported by academics who have reached the same conclusion that we must reject these tools and embrace real reform.

#JusticeLA

Care first.

Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will be voting on a budget that includes moving $120 million dollars toward the construction of 2,400 new jail beds for people with mental health needs. This move runs counter to the Board’s emphatic “care first, jail last” ethos driving the alternatives to incarceration work in the County. The interim report released this month by the Alternatives to Incarceration Workgroup (ATI) sharply demonstrated that County agencies, scholars, and community stakeholders reached consensus on the need to develop and fund alternatives to incarceration. The logical move is for the Board to prioritize funding that supports their calls for “care first, jail last.”

Until the County receives the results of multiple jail population studies, the final Alternatives to Incarceration Workgroup report, and a complete picture of the County’s pretrial population, any proposed number of new jail beds is based both on speculation and our society’s irresponsible muscle memory of relying on mass incarceration. Moving forward a $1.7 billion-dollar jail plan without due diligence is as dangerous as it is fiscally irresponsible.

What’s more insidious is the oft-repeated claim that we don’t have the funds for alternatives. On February 12, the County Chief Executive Officer informed the public that the County was sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of general funds set aside for the construction of the mental health jail. So instead of solving the current houselessness crisis in the County or exploring investments in community based infrastructure that can reduce the jail population, the CEO syphoned and hoarded hundreds of millions of dollars for new jail space. If only a fraction of funds set aside for constructing jails were allocated to affordable housing, substance abuse treatment, and mental health services, the County could have saved lives. 

The Board remains the last line of defense against a rogue Chief Executive Office that continues to push for jail construction despite countywide consensus on alternatives. If they genuinely believe in “Care first,” they must demonstrate their commitment to alternatives by allocating these hundreds of millions earmarked for jail beds to community-based resources and develop a decarceration plan in order to close down Men’s Central Jail (MCJ). The fastest way to shrink the jail population and alleviate the unsafe conditions inside MCJ is to decarcerate, and the County’s pretrial population is the answer in plain sight.

LA County’s pretrial population hovers around 7,445. Additionally, 4,617 people in jail pretrial are there because they do not have the resources to pay bail. The County can choose to stop the use of money bail now and release thousands of people who cannot afford to pay for their freedom. If even half of the 4,617 people are eligible for release, that would account for nearly all 2,400 jail beds the CEO’s office is pushing to build.

The ODR’s recent report estimates that an additional 2,875 people with mental health needs can be diverted out of the County’s jail system, accounting for more than half of the total mental health population in LA County jails. It is 60-100% more expensive to jail people who have health, mental health, or substance use disorders. Fully funding community based diversion for this population is the most cost-effective approach. If the County releases one-third of its pretrial population, in addition to the ODR’s recommended population, that would reduce the jail population by 5,357, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. 

The only fiscally responsible choice is to terminate the current design build contract with McCarthy. If the Supervisors blindly follow the CEO’s lead and allocate $120 million toward the construction of jail beds on Monday without proper analysis, they will be deliberately prioritizing jails over care. With every vote, this Board is cementing their legacy. The LA County Board of Supervisors has been visionary in rhetoric. It remains to be seen if their vision will be backed up by action.

Ivette Alé

Statewide Coordinator, Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Campaign Coordinator, JusticeLA

In a move welcomed by the JusticeLA coalition, the Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR) will be releasing a report detailing how nearly 3,000 prisoners with mental health concerns locked up in LA county jails can be released to community-based mental health resources. Mental health diversion and decentralized, community-based mental health care have long been demands of communities that have opposed new jail construction, and ODR’s latest study affirms that neither a new jail nor an enormous jail-like “mental health treatment center” is necessary or desirable.

By laying a path for releasing thousands of prisoners with mental health concerns, the Office of Diversion and Reentry has now released a bold vision for decarceration and mental health treatment that echoes what communities opposed to jail construction dared to imagine over a decade ago.

“Care not cages” has been the rallying cry of community lead opposition to jail expansion in Los Angeles for nearly a decade. JusticeLA, a coalition of advocates, community members, individuals and families impacted by incarceration, continues building on the legacy of resistance by groups like the Coalition to End Sheriff Violence and L.A. No More Jails, calling for an end to jail construction and an investment in community-based treatment and support. Through our collective work, we have not only stopped the jail expansion plan for LA County, but we have shifted the entire paradigm away from a reliance on jails to a focus on health and human services. In fact, the creation of the county’s Office of Diversion and Reentry was a direct response to community pressure for increased diversion back in 2015. What began as a pilot program has proven to be an effective model for community-based treatment and diversion of some of the most serious cases facing the county.

It is clear that the advocacy of the last decade has shifted the landscape of LA County away from incarceration and towards treatment and care.

To their credit, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors have flexed their collective muscle to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated and that Los Angeles becomes the model for holistic, restorative criminal justice reform. The impact of community advocacy was unmistakable on the critical February 12th, 2019 vote on the jail plan, when Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas declared that he supported “Care Not Cages.”

It is monumental that after seven years since the new jail construction plan was proposed, the county is now discussing how a mental health system should replace the jail plan, rather than whether or not we need new jails. Recent motions to study mental health treatment and pretrial reform, as well as the creation of the Alternatives to Incarceration Workgroup, are great first steps in this collective reimagining of LA County. But in order for that vision to be fully executed, the County must commit to fully funding ODR’s plan and implement a transparent process that engages community at every step and invests in the development of local, community-based mental health centers rather than a monolithic hospital that essentially functions as a jail. The ODR report argues that large scale decarceration is not only possible, it is ethically necessary.

JusticeLA continues to demand a fundamental shift away from a centralized mental health facility that resembles a jail.

The construction of a 3,800 bed mental health center, which would mirror the dark legacy of failed and oppressive model of big mental asylums in this country, is not only obscene in size and cost, it is diametrically opposed to LA residents’ needs and national standards of treatment. ODR’s report calls for the diversion of nearly 3,000 people with mental health needs, rendering arguments for the massive asylum obsolete. If built, it will cost up to $2 billion dollars from LA County’s general fund – money that can and should be invested in developing community based services. The proposed asylum is intended to be built downtown, limiting job creation and expansion of community based services to other parts of Los Angeles County in desperate need of resources.

Despite all signs pointing to a complete rejection of the current plan to build a massive asylum and investment in community-based treatment, the CEO’s office and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department continue to push for this controversial, flawed, and costly system. Both parties have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo at the expense of Black, Brown and poor communities already suffering from generations of divestment and criminalization. The moment for incremental reforms has passed. What LA County needs now is bold, decisive action.

JusticeLA’s plan will build a stronger LA

JusticeLA’s plan for community-based mental health centers in each district of the LA County provides the roadmap for better treatment as well as job creation. The plan also supports union demands for local zip code hiring and is backed up by national mental health treatment standards. Mental health treatment that builds care in the community is the only appropriate course of action, as it is both cost effective and provides better treatment.

The community has been calling for paradigm shift away from incarceration towards real public safety that prioritizes well-being and dignity. What ODR’s work demonstrates is that public health strategies are more effective drivers of public safety than arrest and jailing. We will continue to work with elected officials to ensure they do their part in supporting this historic shift away from arresting people, including those who presumably “must” be kept in jail. County leaders’ mandate should be to follow the call of community members, the research of ODR, and various health and justice leaders who agree that diversion, not jail, is the most effective public health strategy. The county now has the opportunity to build on ODR’s assessment and consider diversion opportunities for other subpopulations, such as the county’s pretrial population which hovers around 44% of the total jail population, prevention before these individuals are arrested and how these models will be staffed.

By stopping new jail construction, we have already moved mountains. With your continued support, we can make our dreams for a strong and healthy LA a reality.

#JusticeLA

We made history. But the fight isn’t over.

Last week, Justice LA and many other organizations and community members turned out in force to actualize the vision of generations of organizing. A sea of orange shirts filled the room as a reminder to the Supervisors and to each other that people power makes the impossible possible. The women’s jail (Mira Loma) was rejected outright and the mental health jail plan (CCTF) was shifted to instead build a mental health treatment facility! Our victories are a culmination of nearly a decade of activism by advocates, community members, individuals and families impacted by incarceration. Through our collective work, we have not only stopped the jail expansion plan for LA County, we have shifted the entire paradigm away from a reliance on jails to health and human services.

The Wins

• THERE WILL BE NO NEW WOMEN’S JAIL AT MIRA LOMA!
• The County replaced their plans for the mental health jail from a law enforcement driven model to a treatment model. We are well positioned for the Sheriff to no longer be the sole authority in this structure moving forward, with Departments of Health Services and Mental Health called to strongly participate.
• The Supervisors adopted JusticeLA’s recommendations to explore the decentralization of the approved replacement to Men’s Central Jail.
• We saw the largest and strongest anti-jail mobilization to the Board of Supervisors that we’ve seen in years!

But we must remain activated and vigilant.

As Supervisor Hilda Solis so clearly pointed out: “A jail is a jail is a jail.” In her statement following the vote, she writes, “It is not enough to change the name of the [mental health jail]. What the Board of Supervisors approved today still has to be certified and approved by the Board of State and Community Corrections and not a mental health regulator. The Board of Supervisors did not solicit input from the community or mental health experts when developing this brand-new project. Further, the Board of Supervisors made this decision without examining the population currently in our custody or forecasting the tremendous impact that diversion and bail reform efforts would have on further reducing our jail population.”

Supervisor Kuehl argued that approving the contract for the mental health treatment facility “hardens our ability to think in other ways … this hospital would be bigger than all of our hospitals put together.” Both Solis and Kuehl stated concerns that building this mental health treatment facility will funnel resources away from efforts to expand community based treatment. We share the concerns that both Supervisors Solis and Keuhl raised during the meeting and that ultimately informed their ‘NO’ votes to Supervisor Hahn and Mark Ridley-Thomas’ amendments.

The Struggle Continues

• A jail by another name: The Supervisors voted (3-2) to approve a $2.2 billion contract originally designed for jail construction. Although the preamble of the Hahn/Ridley-Thomas amendments to CCTF were some of the most progressive words to come out of this board regarding shifting from jail construction to a treatment centered model, the directives failed to live up to the preamble. We must continue to demand a rejection of a centralized mental health facility that resembles a jail. The construction of a 3,800 bed mental health treatment facility is not only obscene in size and cost, it is diametrically opposed to LA residents’ needs and national standards of treatment. Mental health experts, including those directing the County’s health departments, clearly stated that a decentralized approach to mental health treatment that builds care in the community is the only appropriate course of action. What will be both cost effective and provide better treatment is JusticeLA’s plan for at least one community-based mental health center in each district of the LA County.
• Transparency and Accountability: There is no explicit mechanism for community input regarding the size and scope of the revised project and the Department of Public Works and CEO’s office have proven to be untrustworthy in this process. We need to ensure that a transparent and accountable process is immediately in place.
• Population and Diversion Analysis: The approved plan does not allow sufficient time to consider the results of various studies the Board has set in motion – including a study of mental health bed capacity and pretrial diversion. We need to ensure that LA County continues to lead this project from a position of prioritizing lowering the jail population.
• Current plan limits job creation and expansion of community based services: The proposed 3,800 bed mental health treatment facility is intended to be built in the heart of LA. This will limit job creation and opportunities for people who live in other parts of Los Angeles County. This mental health facility is set to cost up $2 billion dollars from LA County’s general fund. General fund dollars that can be and should be invested in developing community based services. 

Our organizing towards stopping jail expansion and investing in LA County’s genuine community needs is not over. #JusticeLA is regrouping and strategizing our next steps. Congratulations to our coalition members and thank you to our partners and allies for standing so strong with us yesterday! We encourage everyone to stay plugged in and stay activated!

With gratitude,

#JusticeLA

It’s Go Time! 

With less than a week to go before the County’s historic vote on the current $3.5 Billion jail plan, Supervisor Hilda Solis has released a powerful statement committing to voting ‘No’ on CCFT (the mental health jail). Her statement was accompanied by a motion calling for a coordinated study of mental health and substance abuse diversion and treatment capacity in order to “reimagine” the county’s jail construction plan. 

In her motion she writes, “several forensic mental health experts have indicated that investment in new jails, even with improved treatment components, are unlikely to significantly improve the treatment of inmates with mental illness […] The answer, according to these experts, is not in building a new jail to replace a decrepit one.”

Help us move the rest of the Board to reject new jails!

If you agree that people with mental health needs should be treated in their community and not in a jail, sign and share our petition against the mental health jail! Over 4,000 people have signed – help us reach 5,000! 

Email or call your Supervisor asking them to vote ‘NO’ on jail construction! Supervisors Hahn or Ridley-Thomas especially need to hear from you!

Don’t know who your supervisor is? Find out here!

1. HILDA L SOLIS, (213) 974-4111, E-mail: firstdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov
2. MARK RIDLEY-THOMAS, (213) 974-2222 Email: SecondDistrict@bos.lacounty.gov
3. SHEILA KUEHL, (213) 974-3333, Email: sheila@bos.lacounty.gov
4. JANICE HAHN, (213) 974-4444, Email: fourthdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov
5. KATHRYN BARGER, (213) 974-5555, Email: Kathryn@bos.lacounty.gov

Sample Script: Thank you Supervisor _______ for your commitment to investing in alternatives to incarceration. As a stakeholder in your district, I am deeply troubled that the County is considering waisting billions on jail construction, which would undermine all of your amazing efforts to divert people with mental health and substance use issues out of incarceration and into community-based treatment. I strongly urge you to vote ‘no’ on any jail construction next Tuesday and continue building on your visionary work. 

Rally with JusticeLA on February 12th! 

Next Tuesday February 12th will be the single most important date in the history of the L.A. County jail fight! Join JusticeLA at the Care Not Cages Rally and Press Conference to demand a complete stop of all jail construction and full investment in alternatives to incarceration. 

Where: 500 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
When: 10am
Support: RSVP and share the Facebook Event! 

Can’t attend? Support us on social media! All you have to do is CLICK to TWEET! 

Thank you for your leadership LA County Supervisor @HildaSolis! “We must properly explore how we can better treat mental health & substance use* needs.” In community based settings NOT Jails. The community stands w/ you! You can’t get well in a cell! https://hildalsolis.org/statement-from-supervisor-hilda-l-solis-on-the-consolidated-correctional-treatment-facility-project/

To the Building Trades & Unions of Los Angeles County: Stand w/ us against the LA County Jail Plan! Stopping the Jail plan will NOT take away jobs! The jobs that are created if the County builds Hospitals & community based centers ARE STILL GOOD JOBS! BUILD Community! #JusticeLA

You @SheilaKuehl @HildaSolis @SupJaniceHahn @kathrynbarge @mridleythomas – must make the right decision this time and reject the wasteful, ineffective & unnecessary construction of CCTF. You have OPTIONS! This plan is 10 years old! Let it go and study how we can best reduce pop!

🚨ACTION🚨: We strongly urge the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to vote NO, on February 12th, and reject the plan to build a $4 billion mental health jail! SIGN OUR PETITION from community members and health care providers against the jail! http://bit.ly/2WrI0Be

.@SheilaKuehl @HildaSolis @SupJaniceHahn @kathrynbarge @mridleythomas @LACoSheriff from 2013-2018 the population of ppl w/mental health needs in the LA County Jail System increased by 66%. INVEST IN COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES! You can’t get well in a cell! #CareNotCages #JusticeLA

#JusticeLA 

p.s. Check out the powerful The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board piece opposing the construction of the mental health jail!

As thousands of firefighters, many of whom are currently incarcerated, battle one of the most devastating environmental catastrophes California has ever experienced, Donald Trump embraces the First Step Act, a bill that reinforces the blistering racism and capitalistic policies that have subjected millions of Black, Brown, and poor bodies to local, state, and federal criminal justice systems.

Mass incarceration impacts all aspects of life for so many Californians and Americans. We work in a collaborative formation that many call a movement, with the intent and desire to set our communities free from a system that has devastated our communities for generations. Currently, we work under a particular kind of duress, as there is an administration in place that has not only affirmed and validated the state violence that we fight, but gregariously celebrated it. To have Van Jones and others come to Los Angeles in this moment, and extol the virtues of Trump’s destructive and amoral administration and call him a “uniter-in-chief” was an example of irresponsible advocates supporting a divisive policy that continues the denigration of people who are incarcerated, including immigrants.

“The Trump administration has not and is not embracing reform,” Phal Sok, a member of JusticeLA and the Youth Justice Coalition explains. “Characterizing an endorsement of the First Step Act as such is not only myopic, it disregards his relentless attacks on our communities. As part of the collective movement for liberation, JusticeLA stands in strong opposition to local and national forces that seek to expand the reach of incarceration and call reform.”

Those, like Van Jones, who traffic in policy efforts that serve to expand the reach of the prison industrial complex in order to secure political footing, do so while exploiting the desperation, vulnerability, and trauma of impacted people and sanctioning an administration peddling fascism and white supremacy. Liberal accomplices of Trump-endorsed policies do so at the risk of obscuring the administration’s actual agenda – increasing the criminalization, incarceration and deportation of LGBTQIA+ communities, refugees and Black and Brown people from America’s “ghettos” and “shithole countries.”

Earlier this year, JusticeLA voiced our opposition to the bill. We can only hope that some good can come of it, and we appreciate those who fought to make key changes to the bill, namely adding some sentencing reform, limiting DOJ and warden discretion, and demanding oversight for disturbing provisions like the development and implementation of algorithmic based risk assessment instruments. Those changes are ultimately not enough to mitigate what is in the end, a harmful bill that expands the mass criminalization and surveillance of our communities, or what Michelle Alexander describes as “the newest Jim Crow.”  The First Step Act does not represent real reform. It carves out those most vulnerable to the revolving door impacts of mass imprisonment, and manages to create more bureaucracy. This bill is weaker than prior federal criminal justice reform efforts, while also placing potential implementation in the hands of an administration that openly endorses “zero tolerance” policies that have led to family separation and the incarceration of thousands. “In many respects, we’re getting very much tougher on the truly bad criminals — of which, unfortunately, there are many,” Trump declared. If Trump does in fact keep his word, the First Step Act will be yet another tool of a corrupt and punitive administration.

#JusticeLA

One year ago today, community members delivered 100 jail beds to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in a clear statement of opposition towards the county’s $3.5 billion jail expansion plan. Our message was simple: invest in communities, not jails. We reclaimed “public safety” as the measure of how well we meet life-sustaining needs — housing, healthcare, education — rather than how many of our people are behind bars. We reimagined a Los Angeles where people are not caged, but instead, treated with the care they need in their communities. And we continue to demand that Los Angeles County reinvest billions, not on jails, but on community-based alternatives to incarceration and the future of our young people.

The fight is far from over.

Over the last year, the JusticeLA Coalition has built on nearly a decade of resistance, engaging thousands of people, locally and nationally, in this fight. From town halls and community panels, block parties and massive rallies, to evocative creative and cultural work, we have amplified the visibility of our struggle and flexed our collective muscle. Although opposition to the jails is rapidly growing and statewide pressure for criminal justice reform increases, the county moves forward with their poorly thought out and harmful jail plan. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors continues to plow through with an opaque process that intentionally excludes the voices of our community. The JusticeLA Coalition will not stop shining a light on incarceration in Los Angeles and fight at every step of the way until this jail plan is stopped.

We are now at a critical juncture — ground has not broken on jail construction and contracts have not been approved. Now is the time to flex our muscles once again and show L.A. County once and for all that we will not sit idly by while they build jails that will incarcerate our children. The change we want to see in our state and in our country starts at home, and when your home is the largest jailer in the world, anything other than change is unacceptable.  

JusticeLA

JusticeLA Issues Letter to L.A. County Board of Supervisors As Future of Bail Reform Hangs in the Balance with SB 10

June 6, 2018

Today, JusticeLA issued the following letter to members of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors calling on them to oppose the use of algorithm-based risk-assessment tools under the guise of bail reform that will shift bail amounts based strictly on accusations, to a system that uses factors such as poverty and other indicia that will disfavor mainly people of color:

Honorable Members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors:

JusticeLA enthusiastically supports ending money bail in California as a step towards ending the pretrial detention system that continues to undermine a meaningful particle of justice and public safety in Los Angeles County. Towards that end, we unequivocally oppose the use of pretrial risk assessment tools. The current money bail system wastes millions of County dollars, extracts additional millions from our most vulnerable communities, and thwarts the rights to the assumption of innocence and freedom. While we support the effort of SB 10 to significantly reduce the use of money bail, its risk-assessment component euphemizes our current bail schedules by shifting bail amounts based strictly on accusations into amounts based on factors such as poverty and other indicia that will disfavor our local communities.

Neither wealth nor profiling should determine a person’s freedom.

Algorithm-based risk-assessment tools give the illusion of neutrality, normalizing bias while reinforcing long-standing systems of racial inequality. The notion that any risk assessment instrument can account for bias ignores the racial disparities in current and past policing practices. Because risk-assessment tools primarily rely on criminal history information, they will only exacerbate racial disparities. Ultimately, risk-assessment tools create a feedback-loop of racial profiling, pre-trial detention and conviction. A person’s freedom should not be reduced to an algorithm. It is dehumanizing and ignores the context that can only be achieved through a proper hearing with evidence examined and defense counsel present.

Therefore, we strongly urge you to request the following amendments to SB 10:

Remove the mandate for risk assessment tools in order to give Los Angeles County the autonomy to form its own pre-trial system.

All misdemeanor and non-serious/non-violent felonies get released without a risk-assessment determining conditions.

Anyone who qualifies for appointed counsel would be deemed unable to pay for conditions (electronic monitoring, costs of pretrial services, drug testing, etc.).

Where pre-trial detention is being considered, courts should implement individualized hearings to determine the necessity of pre-trial detention. A needs-based assessment should be administered to determine the least restrictive conditions for release while providing relevant resources and services; including mental health treatment, housing, substance abuse treatment, as well as wrap-around services. Services should be rendered and provided without expanding conditions

JusticeLA insists that the following steps be put into place alongside bail reform:

Pretrial services should be housed within the Department of Public Health.

County funding should be allocated for pilot programs in each district that support community-based pretrial services.

Any savings from reducing pretrial incarceration should be allocated to implement pre-arrest, community-based diversion programs with restricted police authority to require people to enter these programs.

Pretrial release should not be reliant on punitive or controlling measures such as Electronic Monitoring but rather should be based on meeting individual needs.

Finally, bail reform presents Los Angeles County with the opportunity to drastically reduce its jail population. By the L.A. County Sheriff’s’ own estimates, nearly half of the jail population is awaiting trial. In light of the Humphrey legal decision and the likely passage of statewide bail reform, Los Angeles County must develop an immediate and long-term decarceration plan that would provide benchmarks for the reduction of the overall LA County jail population as well as per day jail bed occupancy. Given that 50% of LA County’s jail population is being held pretrial, bail reform would drastically reduce this percentage. This will result in opportunities for investing in community-based alternatives to imprisonment, other decarceration and decriminalization efforts, and life-sustaining services such as community-based mental health care. LA County should immediately halt all plans and efforts for jail construction until bail reform is fully implemented and there is a thorough assessment of financial, community, and jail impacts.

We welcome the opportunity to expand on our recommendations and continue discussions on bail reform implementation with your offices.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

JusticeLA Executive Committee

JusticeLA, a coalition of community organizations working with directly impacted communities affected by incarceration, has joined the chorus of organizations nationwide in opposing the FIRST STEP Act.

“Last week, the House of Representatives passed harmful legislation masked as a “criminal justice” bill.  As a coalition that advocates for the rights of communities targeted by the prison system, JusticeLA vehemently opposes H.R. 5682 also referred to as the FIRST STEP Act.

“We oppose the FIRST STEP Act because it dehumanizes and criminalizes our communities. The First Step Act further invests in structural racism through the use of risk assessments, extensive carve-outs of vulnerable populations, with a false promise of earned credit for those who qualify.  The bill opens the door to privatization, e-carceration and anti-immigrant policy.

“Although immigration and drug offenses account for over 50% of the total federal prison population, the FIRST STEP Act excludes the majority of these populations. The bill specifically excludes those with more serious criminal convictions and deportable or inadmissible immigrants from benefitting from these programs. To discard this vulnerable population in the interest of a political victory is a violation of the principles that we stand for.

America’s criminal justice system continues to be built on anti-Blackness and causes disproportionately harm to Black and brown people, including queer and trans people and immigrants and people of all economic classes–including white people. What’s more, the tools in this bill would be handed over to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who works consistently to harm our communities.

“Sessions has demonized and threatened Black activists fighting to dismantle structural racism. Through his policies, he has caused immediate harm to Black people and all people of color, including immigrants.

“The FIRST STEP Act would do little to reform prisons or the federal court system that can’t already be done under current laws. The bill excludes necessary funding for recidivism reduction programming and fails to safeguard savings from ending up in the hands of law enforcement. The FIRST STEP Act also fails to address the need for sentencing reform so that America can begin to address the over-policing and criminalization of the communities this bill excludes. Without sentencing reform, meaningful prison reform is nullified.

“In conclusion, the FIRST STEP Act is not real prison reform, and it is especially not prison reform proportionate to the strength and sacrifice of the directly impacted people who have built this movement. The broad bipartisan support the movement for criminal justice reform now enjoys is the product of far-reaching generational harm. To discard an entire population of people in the interest of a political victory is a violation of the principles that we stand for.”