Rina Palta

As part of conspiracy trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys argue about the propriety of giving a cell phone to a jailhouse informant to document jail abuses.

Federal prosecutors said members of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department changed the department's inmate visitation policy to thwart an FBI investigation into jailhouse wrongdoing.

Trial began Tuesday in a case against an L.A. County sheriff's deputy accused of trying to thwart an investigation into inmate abuse and corruption in L.A.'s jails.

Trial is set to start Tuesday for the first of 20 L.A. County Sheriff's deputies charged in a sweeping investigation into corruption and civil rights violations in L.A.'s county jails.

Lobbyists for L.A. County appeared at the state capitol Thursday to ask for help funding a proposed $1.8 billion overhaul of the local jail system.

Since her election as District Attorney, Jackie Lacey has staked out diverting mentally ill out of the criminal justice system as one of her top priorities.

In a 3-1 vote, with one abstention, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors OK'd a plan to build a new county jail focused on mental health treatment.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday to discuss plans to replace the decrepit Men’s Central Jail. The project could be one of the costliest in L.A.'s history.

Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies assigned to check on a suicidal Twin Towers inmate left him alone for nearly three hours, in violation of department protocol.

John Winkler's family filed the claim Tuesday. The sheriff's department said he was accidentally killed by deputies when they mistook him for a kidnapping suspect. A county official said he wants to resolve it quickly.

A new trauma recovery center in Long Beach opened this month with the goal of providing counseling services to crime victims who don't usually seek help.

L.A. County is desperately trying to find homes for kids with mental illness, who are often bumped around the foster care system and at high risk for poverty and incarceration. It has embarked on an effort to recruit 140 more foster parents.