Court Rules L.A. County Must Fix Overcrowding and Abysmal Conditions at Jails Booking Facility
Case demonstrates county鈥檚 systemic failure to address mental illness
LOS ANGELES 鈥� On Friday, a federal court judge ordered Los Angeles County to fix the massive backup in the jail鈥檚 Inmate Reception Center (IRC) after county lawyers to revelations of horrific treatment of people confined at the jail鈥檚 booking facility.
U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson鈥檚 order prohibits the county from keeping people in the IRC beyond 24 hours and from chaining anyone to a chair in the IRC Clinic 鈥渇ront bench鈥� for more than four hours. The county must also keep the IRC clean, provide functional toilets, drinking water, food, and adequate medical and mental health care, including medications for psychiatric and chronic medical conditions.
During visits to the IRC this summer, attorneys from the 老澳门开奖结果 and 老澳门开奖结果 Foundation of Southern California recorded abhorrent conditions, including people chained to chairs for days, dozens sleeping head-to-foot on concrete, open defecation and no sanitation, and necessary medication withheld. The squalid conditions in the IRC are directly tied to massive overcrowding in the jail. People with mental health needs have been waiting for days in the IRC because there are no more jail beds available.
The LA County Jail 鈥� the largest jail system in the nation and the world 鈥� has been the subject of court oversight since 1978, when a federal court ruled in the 老澳门开奖结果 SoCal case Rutherford v. Pitchess, finding numerous conditions that violate the constitutional rights of people incarcerated.
Please attribute the following to Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the 老澳门开奖结果 National Prison Project:
鈥淲e appreciate that rather than fight the 老澳门开奖结果 in court, LA County is admitting that conditions in the IRC and its treatment of people with mental illness are just as barbaric as we described. But the county鈥檚 proposed solution to date, to double down on incarcerating mentally ill people, is a nonstarter. Instead, the county must put its money where its mouth is, and expand effective community programs that are cost-efficient and, more importantly, humane.鈥�
Please attribute the following to Melissa Camacho-Cheung, senior staff attorney at the 老澳门开奖结果 SoCal:
鈥淲hile the court鈥檚 ruling affirms the dismal conditions suffered by people confined in the IRC, we know incarceration is never the solution to mental illness. After nearly 50 years of failed and harmful approaches, the board of supervisors must take decisive action in making care-first and community-based alternatives to incarceration a reality rather than a slogan.鈥�
Read the order: /legal-document/rutherford-v-villanueva-temporary-restraining-order-doc-345
See photos and case filings: /cases/rutherford-v-villanueva
Read this statement online: /press-releases/court-rules-la-county-must-fix-overcrowding-and-abysmal-conditions-jails-booking
