The Ongoing Crisis In Men’s Central Jail – Simply Inexcusable

The crisis in LA County Jails is inexcusable.  I represent indigent defendants in Los Angeles.  I’m a former Public Defender and currently take state-appointed cases.  That means I am hired by the county of Los Angeles to represent people who can’t afford to hire an attorney.  All of my clients have been in LA County Jails.  LA County has the largest jail system in the USA, with over 22,000 incarcerated.  Most of my clients have been in “Men’s Central Jail.”

“Men’s Central” is a “Jail.”  It is not a “prison.”  Jails are operated by cities.  They are designed primarily to house those convicted of small crimes – misdemeanors  (which are usually prosecuted by City Attorneys) and people who are awaiting trial.  Prisons, by contrast, are state facilities that house serious offenders, or “Felons.”

Men’s Central Jail presently houses over 7,000 people -- far beyond capacity -- 57% of whom are awaiting trial.  If you have a drink on a Friday, and an officer thinks you might have driven while intoxicated, and you can’t put up a deed and spend $3G - $5G for bail, you might spend the weekend at Men’s Central Jail.

Because California’s state prisons are overcrowded, jails, like Men’s Central Jail, now house the overflow.  So that weekend in Jail would be spent alongside felons who have already served substantial time and conformed to the prison lifestyle.

The ACLU has been calling for the closure of Men’s Central Jail for years.  This month, the Department of Justice stated that the conditions of Men’s Central Jail constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and that they “present, rather then prevent, a risk of suicide.”  (This became international news, with the BBC stunned that this could happen in the United States, and especially in a major metropolitan city like Los Angeles).  This year, Mother Jones Magazine listed Men’s Central Jail first in its list of “10 worst jails in America.”  Twenty-one Los Angeles County Sheriffs have been indicted in federal court for allegations of civil rights violations in LA Jails, and primarily in Men’s Central Jail.  One trial is going on now.  It involves allegations that the Deputies interfered with a federal investigation into abuse at Men’s Central.  One of the FBI informants was an inmate at Men’s Central Jail.  In that trial, one of the defendant Deputies has admitted that, upon learning that the inmate was an FBI informant, the deputies purposefully hid that inmate from the FBI.

         Hopefully, you won’t ever spend a day in Men’s Central Jail.  And neither will those that you care for.  But it could happen.  And Men’s Central Jail is but one example of how we treat people accused of crimes.  The punishment inflicted on one who has been accused of a crime should not be worse than that inflicted on one who has been convicted of one.  And as a modern nation, we need to ensure that punishment is just, and that “cruel and unusual” conditions are the rare embarrassing exception, not the daily occurrence happening in downtown Los Angeles.