The Brief

Los Angeles County’s overall jail population has increased nearly 4% since late last year, in part because of more arrests related to a voter-approved proposition that allowed police to once again arrest people accused of certain low-level drug and theft crimes.

It’s a relatively small increase — roughly 500 incarcerated people — but it could indicate what is to come now that Proposition 36 is California law.

The county Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jails, and county officials tasked with moving people out of the crumbling Men’s Central Jail in downtown L.A., said they're watching the jail population growth closely as it could make it harder to meet their needs.

It could also strain the department’s ability to serve people’s specific mental health needs even further. About 45% of the overall jail population are living with mental health issues, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

“We are going in the wrong direction,” said Wilford Pinkney, executive director of the Community Safety Implementation Team, which is responsible for figuring out how to safely move people out of the Men’s Central Jail and eventually close it.

“We’re going to have to continue to look at strategies to address any increase in the jail population, whether it’s from Prop. 36 or anything else,” Pinkney told the Board of Supervisors last month.

The Sheriff’s Department told LAist that, so far, the population increase has not affected jail operations or required more staff. But department authorities said they were watching the population growth “very closely.”

“We are concerned that if the [increase] compounds over time the availability of specialized medical and mental health housing will be adversely impacted,” the department said.

Effects of Proposition 36

Proposition 36 increased criminal penalties for certain drug and theft crimes, including allowing felony charges for theft crimes under $950. It was a response to an increase in petty theft, shoplifting and smash-and-grab robberies across California.

The measure rolled back the reforms of historic Proposition 47, passed by voters in 2014, which was aimed at reducing prison populations by reclassifying some low-level drug and property offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.

After Prop. 47, jail and prison populations around the state dropped by 30%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

On average, 35 people per week enter county jail on Prop. 36-related charges as the most serious offense, according to a report from Pinkney and his team.

In December, there were 12 people in custody on Prop. 36-related offenses; that number jumped to 403 as of mid-March. And the report points out that 35% to 40% of those people required specialty mental health housing.

“If the impact of Proposition 36 continues in this way, County jail will return to overcrowding and prevent the closure of [Men’s Central Jail],” the report states.

Mental health population rising

County officials and criminal justice reform advocates say they worry that rising numbers of people in the jails who have mental health conditions could hamper the county’s attempts to make good on a years-old promise to close the decrepit Men’s Central Jail.

“We do not have place to put people — especially with mental health needs — in the jail. We’re full up,” Melissa Camacho, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, told LAist.

According to the latest report from the Community Safety Implementation Team, the population of people requiring moderate and high observation mental health housing in the jails has gone up 76% since January of last year.

Pinkney, who heads the county’s jail closure team, said about 900 of the roughly 3,600 people incarcerated at Men’s Central Jail are in mental health housing. That facility, he said, isn’t structured to effectively treat them.

Last January, L.A. County Supervisors considered a five-year timeline to close the facility that community activists said wasn’t fast enough. That plan called for 1,200 new mental health and supportive housing beds per year and for the courts to find a way to safely release an additional 7,000 people a year, among other provisions.

“Right now, it appears to be that the rate of people coming into the system is exceeding, by a lot, the people that are being removed from the system,” Pinkney told LAist.

If the mental health population, which accounts for nearly half the population within the jails, is increasing consistently, “then it’s going to negatively impact and make our job that much harder,” Pinkney said.

Prop. 36 allows for treatment-mandated felonies to be fully expunged if the offender successfully completes drug and mental health treatment. But officials said it's too early to know if a sufficient number of people will be diverted into treatment to reduce the jail population.

A long-delayed closure of an ‘unsafe’ facility

It’s been more than four years since L.A. County received a plan to close the aging downtown Men’s Central Jail. The 145-page proposal called the facility "unsafe, crowded and crumbling."

The report offered a three-pronged strategy for shutting down the more than 60-year-old facility prepared by a workgroup led by the county Office of Diversion and Reentry and the Sheriff’s Department, in partnership with community groups and service providers.

The plan called for:

• Redistributing the Men’s Central Jail population to other jails
• Investing “significantly” in beds and services within the community
• Diverting  4,500 people with mental health issues out of jail

The proposal said it would require a large investment in expanded community mental health and substance use services before L.A. County will be able to close the jail. The authors of the report also estimated it would take up to two years to get it done, a suggested timeline that has long expired.

County supervisors have said it has taken too long to close the facility.

“This effort has languished for far too long and it has harmed far too many people,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said during the board’s meeting on April 8.

Of particular concern for county officials and criminal justice reform advocates have been the number of deaths this year within the overall jail system. There had been at least 16 in-custody deaths as of early April when the supervisors discussed the issue; by the same time last year there were eight.

At least four of the deaths this year have been attributed to drug overdoses.

“It is a source of shame, I think, for all of us in the county family, to continue to operate a jail where this year we have had 16 deaths inside,” Supervisor Janice Hahn said.

The number of deaths reported in L.A. County jails has since risen to 18, five of which happened at Men’s Central Jail. The county Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released the final results of the autopsies on the majority of those cases.

A 2006 report commissioned by the county found that the structure itself, built in 1963, could be extremely dangerous in the event of an earthquake because of inadequate reinforcements and outdated construction methods. The report recommended that the structure be fully replaced.

Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel with the ACLU of Southern California, has called Men’s Central Jail “a modern-day medieval dungeon, a dank, windowless place where prisoners live in fear of retaliation and abuse apparently goes unchecked.”

Jail monitors appointed by the county have pointed to insufficient mental health care within the facility. An LAist investigation in 2023 found an increase in the number of suicide deaths at Men’s Central Jail and the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, both located within the downtown L.A. jail complex.

The family of Mark Carrillo, who died by suicide in a cell at Men’s Central Jail in 2021, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county which was settled for $2.5 million. Carrillo, the complaint alleges, “had a known mental health illness and known suicidal ideations, he was not given medication, nor was treated properly by a psychiatrist. He was simply left to languish.”

For years, local activist groups, including Justice LA and Dignity and Power Now, have been pushing elected leaders to close Men’s Central Jail. Among other things, they point to a wide range of reports from county inspectors and incarcerated people who point to problems including broken toilets, leaking pipes, rats and cockroaches in cells.

Janet Asante, an organizer with Dignity and Power Now, said that while she was glad to see the county build a team dedicated to closing the jail, the county continues to fail its most vulnerable.

“The situation that we’re in stems from the fact that this county Board of Supervisors has not either funded or brought online mental health placements,” Asante said. “We’ve always known that [Men’s Central Jail] is deadly. But I also think it’s important to point out that the conditions and the cruelty inside of the jail itself is making people be at a higher acuity of mental health needs.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

(

J.W. Hendricks

/

The LA Local

)

In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.