Sheriff Baca Announces Decision to Close Men's Central Jail After New Report Is Released

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by Tricia Tongco

As part of a larger effort to reform L.A. county jails, today Sheriff Lee Baca announced for the first time publicly that he is committed to closing down Men’s Central Jail, the largest jail in the world.

The jail has been criticized in the past for inmate abuse and unsanitary conditions, and Sheriff Baca admits that changes need to be made to other jails as well.

"That is the issue with the old design it doesn’t facilitate education-what do you do with a person in jail,you’re just going to leave them in there and not help them mentally? We believe educating people to the extent that they reinvent what they are as a human being and they can go out and can be more trustworthy."

Serious crimes like rape, murder and theft have been declining in L.A. county since 2000, yet more people than ever are being incarcerated.

Margaret Winter, the associate director of the ACLU National Prison Project, points to the reason.

"Why, why are these numbers so vast? It's because we incarcerate millions of people for low-level non-violent offenses."

Prison expert, Dr. James Austin, was appointed by Sheriff Baca to find out how to safely reduce the rising prison population.

Austin says one problem is the jails fill up with people waiting for their trials.

"They cannot get out because they can't raise the bail-the bails are very high here in Los Angeles County so what's blocking them is not their risk level their charge it’s the bail amount and they just can't raise the money."

Austin says that low risk offenders should be free until their trial. low-risk is someone judged unlikely to commit another crime and who is not violent. Austin says education programs in prison are a better option.

After completing their educational programs, low-risk offenders will be under community supervision by parole and probation agents.

The ACLU and Sheriff Baca agree on Austin’s recommendations, and the need to safely close down Men’s Central Jail.

Baca wants to use the Austin report as a roadmap for reducing mass incarceration but he’ll need the support of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, L.A. courts and local government.