The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today postponed discussion of a report by the Office of Inspector General that raises concerns about overcrowded jails, poor quality of medical and mental health care for inmates and the persistence of dangerous social cliques in the Sheriff’s Department.
The data around the use of force is complicated because new reporting policies were instituted in 2013, which county officials have long said created a spike in reporting that wasn’t reflective of a jump in actual force incidents. On top of that, mismatched systems for reporting different kinds of force and violence have created inconsistencies and unreliability in the numbers over time.
Dozens of advocates of criminal justice reform urged the board to simply adopt the Reform L.A. Jails initiative, which has garnered enough signatures to be certified for the November 2020 ballot. The measure would also prioritize alternatives to incarceration over jail construction.