When Cherie Townsend dropped her 12-year-old daughter off for a playdate in Lomita and headed to a nearby mall in one of the wealthiest cities in Los Angeles County — it never occurred to her that she didn’t belong there. She just wanted to waste time while waiting to pick up her daughter and maybe get a little shopping in.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell plans to seek funding for more than 160 new deputies and support personnel to improve medical and mental healthcare for jail inmates, according to a letter posted on the county’s website Tuesday. McDonnell said his department will need to ramp up hiring to deal with the increased demand for medical appointments as the county’s health agency moves toward a patient-centered model that is proactive and preventative. Correctional Health Services, the agency within the Department of Health Services that took over responsibility for jail healthcare in 2015, is working aggressively to hire more personnel. That