As part of its effort to fight the coronavirus, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has reduced the jail population by over 5,000 through fewer arrests and releases of low-level inmates.
It’s estimated that one-third of those in the jails have serious mental health issues, so the L.A. County Department of Mental Health is working with the sheriff to identify inmates with psychiatric needs so they can be connected with services when they’re released.
Here’s Dr. Curley Bonds, the mental health department’s chief medical officer:
“We have put online a couple hundred extra beds so that people that are getting released from either hospital or jail — to the extent that we can — we try to find immediate placement for them so they don’t wind up back on the streets.”
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