LA County Supervisors ask LASD to fix unsafe water in jails

Brown, bug-filled drinking water has been coming out of the taps at one county jail for years, according to reports from an oversight commission.

The Sybil Brand Commission conducts regular, unannounced inspections of jails and lockup facilities maintained by the county, and has been reporting issues with drinking water at the Century Regional Detention Facility (CRDF) in Lynwood since 2023.

The commission has also found problems with the drinking water at other county jails in recent months.

L.A. County Supervisors voted on Tuesday, calling for the Sheriff’s Department to fix water quality issues at all county jails within 180 days.

“Staff who work at the jails have shared their disgust for the water and do not drink it, rather, they bring their own,” according to a motion filed by Supervisor Janice Hahn. The board approved that motion on Tuesday.

Staff provide pregnant women incarcerated at the Lynwood facility with bottled water, the motion says, but other incarcerated people have “expressed discomfort with having to drink water from the tap.” Water bottles are available from the commissary, but incarcerated people must be able to afford the bottled water which is limited to 100 ounces a week per person.

Hahn wrote that the water conditions in county jails are “well-below standards of public health and safety.”

LAist reached out to the L.A. Sheriff’s Department for comment and have not received a response.

In a 2024 letter to the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said that a water quality test by the Department of Public Health two years earlier “verified there was sufficient levels of disinfectant in the drinking water supply to provide safe potable water” at Men's Central Jail, Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and Century Regional Detention Facility.

What the new vote calls for

The Board of Supervisors requested the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the CRDF and other county jails, to fix water quality issues in all county jails within 180 days and immediately provide bottled or clean water to everyone incarcerated.

The vote also called for the Sheriff’s Department to conduct a thorough infrastructure assessment to find causes of water quality issues, and directed the Department of Public Health to look into the quality of water sources that are used by county jails.

Persisting water safety issues

“Unfortunately, issues with water quality and safety are not a 2025 problem, rather one that has been going on for decades,” Supervisor Hahn wrote in the motion voted on in Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

She said the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, a court designated monitor of L.A. County jails, has made complaints to federal courts for years including poor plumbing and water issues at county jail facilities.

The Sybil Brand Commission (SBC) has also found serious concerns at the CRDF.

" We find horrific, horrific, horrific things every inspection," Haley Broder told LAist.

Broder is chair of the SBC — she spoke to LAist as an individual and not on behalf of the commission.

She said she has seen for herself how brown or cloudy water comes from the facility’s water taps, sometimes filled with small bugs.

“ It doesn't look like it is clean and safe to drink,” Broder told LAist. “ Those who work in the jail don't want to drink it.”

LAist reviewed inspection reports filed by the commission and found these issues were repeatedly identified to the Sheriff’s Department.

Back in February 2023, the SBC reported water quality issues at the facility, citing “rampant concerns about gnats in cell water faucets and lack of access to clean water if sink has gnats or are broken.”

Worms and black flies were reported coming out of a sink in an SBC report from April 2024.

In September 2025, the commission reported the facility’s water quality as “severely cloudy” and “completely unacceptable.”

Then in October the SBC reported a supervisor at the facility telling them that a “brown, discolored water issue continues throughout the facility, pending completion of city-led repiping/sewer work.”

People incarcerated at the facility continued to complain of brown water during an SBC inspection last month.

Other problems the commission has found

Aside from water issues, the SBC has repeatedly identified other issues during inspections of the CRDF: moldy rooms, allegations of sexual abuse of incarcerated women and claims that people are served rancid or undercooked food.

The commission has also found issues with the complaint process at the facility. During an inspection on Jan. 12, 2026, commissioners found complaints made in 2018 still sitting in a common room complaint box. The SBC also reported in recent months that incarcerated people said their complaints were dismissed by staff or they feared they would be retaliated against if they did make complaints.

Broder said some of the health and safety issues at CRDF are seen across county facilities. She said she hopes the Sheriff’s Department will take the SBC's reports more seriously and do the follow up work necessary to change the culture of care in county jails.

“ The purpose of jail is not to get you sick and to make you worse,” Broder said. “No one deserves to be living in such conditions."