L.A. County pushes new jail security measures amid deaths

Los Angeles County leaders are demanding the Sheriff’s Division ramp up security measures throughout the jail system as inmate deaths proceed to mount.

Ten individuals died inside L.A. County jails within the first two months of this yr, placing the county on monitor for one more record-setting yr of in-custody deaths. Autopsies to find out causes for all of the deaths are nonetheless pending.

County supervisors voted 4 to 0 on Tuesday on a movement, crafted by Supervisor Janice Hahn, requiring the Sheriff Division take a sequence of steps to scale back inmate deaths, together with growing entry to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone, extra carefully monitoring cameras and beefing up security checks.

“If we don’t handle this now, we’ll see one other document yr of deaths within the County jails — a document we don’t need to repeat,” the movement said.

The demise price has eclipsed the tempo of 2025, which noticed 9 deaths by the tip of February. The yr ended with 46 in-custody deaths, a bounce from the 32 reported deaths in 2024.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger abstained from the vote, arguing the county couldn’t handle the demise price with out constructing a brand new facility.

“We have to be trustworthy in regards to the limitations of amenities that had been by no means designed to deal with at present’s inhabitants,” she stated in an announcement. “I’ve persistently known as for a contemporary substitute facility centered on therapy and rehabilitation as a result of that’s the place the actual resolution lies.”

Sheriff Robert Luna conceded this month that 2026 was “not off to begin.” He framed the problem as due partially to the truth that the county was reserving individuals who had been older and sicker than prior populations and wanted extra intensive care than may very well be provided by the jail system. 4 in 5 individuals face a psychological or bodily well being subject, the division stated.

“Each time I get notified that somebody in my care has handed away, it’s like a kick within the groin,” Luna stated.

The division stated in an announcement that it has “taken aggressive motion to forestall overdoses and violence,” however believes “no jail system can get rid of all dangers when individuals enter custody already critically ailing.”

The supervisors voted greater than 4 years in the past to shut down Males’s Central Jail, a downtown facility infamous for harmful and deteriorating situations, with out constructing a substitute. Since then, inspectors continued to discover a litany of issues contained in the jail, together with mildew and lack of meals.

“The very fact is that we have to shut down Males’s Central,” stated Peggy Lee Kennedy, one in all a number of callers to the board assembly who urged the county to hurry up the closure. “Why are all these individuals dwelling there with main psychological well being points as an alternative of getting the assistance they actually really want?”

The county continues to face intense scrutiny from the state over the situations contained in the jail. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta sued the Sheriff’s Division in September alleging that inmates “are compelled to reside in filthy cells with damaged and overflowing bathrooms, infestations of rats and roaches, and no clear water for ingesting or bathing.”

Bonta alleged inmates had been barred from psychological and medical care, resulting in a “surprising price of deaths contained in the jails, lots of that are brought on by preventable circumstances, equivalent to overdoses, suicides, or violence amongst incarcerated individuals.”

Occasions workers author Salvador Hernandez contributed reporting.