Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
LA County Jail Accused Of Being ‘Far From Compliance’ On Provisions To Protect People With Mental Illness

A court-appointed monitor who keeps watch over conditions for incarcerated people living with a mental illness says L.A. County is seriously behind on several requirements laid out by a federal judge.
In 2015, years after it was cited for mistreating people in jail with a mental illness, L.A. County entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. For one, the agreement required at least 10 hours of out-of-cell time for some of the jail’s mental health population.
The monitor’s report says less than 15% of the jail's sickest, those in so-called High Observation Housing (HOH), were offered that required out-of-cell time during the first quarter of 2022.
Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel at the ACLU of Southern California, wrote a letter to county supervisors calling the county “grossly” out of compliance with the provision.
“The people who are in jail, who are in High Observation Housing, they are people with serious mental illness,” Eliasberg said. “They desperately need therapeutic treatment and they’re not getting it.”
One of the provisions also requires the county to provide group treatment for people living in the jail’s mental health housing.
But according to court monitor Nicholas E. Mitchell’s latest report: “The County remains unable to provide meaningful group programming to many inmates who require it, and is far from compliance with both provisions, largely because it has not hired (or contracted with) enough clinical staff to provide the required programming.”
Diane Rabinowitz, whose son Tariq Carlson was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent years cycling in and out of L.A. County jail, said the kind of treatment people living with a mental illness are getting in jail is “completely mismatched for their lives.”
“It lacks all the ingredients that could possibly make being in jail anywhere remotely therapeutic,” Rabinowitz told LAist. “If you have to have people in jail because we don’t have hospital beds, we don’t have adequate supportive housing, we don’t have [an] adequate system of care, then at least while you have them in there do your best to provide what needs to be provided,” she added.
The overall mental health population stands at about 40% of the roughly 15,000 people currently incarcerated in L.A. County jails.
The federal agreement also requires the county to provide a sufficient amount of inpatient mental health beds. As the incarcerated mental health population within the jails has “ballooned,” the monitor says the county remains far from full compliance with this provision, too.
“You can’t fix these jails problems as long as you’ve got as many people with mental illness in the jails that you have,” said the ACLU’s Eliasberg.
In a statement, L.A. County Counsel said it could not comment on ongoing legal matters, but added: “we want to underscore that Los Angeles County is working to implement corrective practices that can help us alleviate the conditions in the Inmate Reception Center and the jail as swiftly as possible.”
“The County is working on addressing issues identified by the ACLU as well as undoing a system built upon generations of racial inequality and marginalization of the poor,” the emailed statement reads.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.

-
Experts say students shouldn't readily forgo federal aid. But a California-only program may be a good alternative in some cases.
-
The program is for customers in communities that may not be able to afford turf removal or water-saving upgrades.
-
More than half of sales through September have been to corporate developers. Grassroots community efforts continue to work to combat the trend.
-
The bill would increase penalties for metal recyclers who possess or purchase metal used in public infrastructure.
-
The new ordinance applies to certain grocers operating in the city and has led to some self-checkout lanes to shutter.
-
Children asked to waive right to see a judge in exchange for $2,500