LA County’s Dangerous Jails: the Death List

WitnessLA gets regular calls from sources inside Los Angeles County’s jail system. Mostly the callers just want to talk to someone. But they also call when there’s been another death in Men’s Central Jail, or Twin Towers.

Eleven people have died in the county’s jails this year. At least that’s the official count as of today.**

The last fifteen months have been deadly in the nation’s largest jail system.  There were 45 deaths in 2023. When you include this year’s seven deaths, it brings the death total to 56** since Jan. 1, 2023.

Late last month we got multiple calls about death number seven, which occurred on Tuesday, March 28, 2024.

Our sources in MCJ, as the dungeon-like Men’s Central Jail is known for short, told us that on March 27, the day before the man died, he reportedly complained to people in the dayroom of his unit, telling those around him that he was having trouble breathing and that he was scared.  

Around 7:00 p.m. that same day, or thereabouts, sources in his unit reportedly heard the man call out to a deputy with a request to see a doctor due to his worsening breathing problem. 

According to our MCJ sources, the deputy said he was busy, but that he’d be back.

It’s not clear if anyone ever came back to check on the man with the breathing issue in the following few hours. According to sources in his unit, around 3:00 a.m. or so, there was finally a wellness check, but it was reportedly too late. 

His date of death is listed as having taken place on March 26, the day following the afternoon he complained in the dayroom.

“I’m afraid I’m not going to make it out of here alive,” said one of WLA’s jail sources after death number seven. 

When we talked further, the source made clear he isn’t fearful of being harmed by another inmate, or a sheriff’s deputy.  He has some health problems, and is fearful that in a health emergency,  he would not get timely and appropriate medical treatment.

The safety check issue

The California Code of Regulations, Title 15, section 1027.5, requires hourly safety checks of people in custody. “All inmates in our custody shall be visually checked at least once each hour to ensure their safety and welfare,” is the way the statute reads.

The Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) lists these safety checks as one of the 15 “minimum standards” for local detention facilities.

Yet, in mid-February of this year, when the BSCC’s monitors did their cyclical assessment of Men’s Central Jail, the monitors found the dungeon-like facility “had numerous gaps in the documentation of safety checks,” meaning even in terms of the most minimum basic standards, the facility was of compliance. 

Both our jail resident sources who call us from inside the facility, and sources who work for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, tell us that, based on their personal experience, MCJ is frequently alarmingly out of compliance with the state statute when it comes to hourly safety checks.

Deadly trend

The Vera Institute of Justice describes the growing list of deaths in the custody division of the LA County Sheriff’s Department as a “deadly trend” that even far exceeds that of New York City Department of Correction (NYC DOC) facilities, where the rising number of deaths at the Rikers Island jail complex is a “mounting crisis that has received nationwide attention.”

But in LA County, things are worse.  This is particularly true in MCJ.

“Men’s Central Jail claimed three times as many lives as any other jail in the Los Angeles County system last year,” said Claire Simonich, associate director of policy for Vera California, in an email to WLA. “The Board of Supervisors voted to close it, without a replacement, nearly three years ago. And since that vote, data from the Office of the Inspector General shows at least 131 more people have lost their lives in Men’s Central.”

 For those who make it through alive, Simonich wrote, “the jail is still an inhumane nightmare.”

Unhealthy medical system

In the November 16, 2023, report on the LA County’s Sheriff’s Department, by the Office of Inspector General, the OIG described that — out of the 190 new complaints by people in custody and/or their family members and friends — the largest pile of complaints pertained to the jails’ medical system.

A lot of those who work in the world of correctional health seem to have the same view.

On May 24, 2023, nurses, and other correctional health care workers, demonstrated in front of MCJ protesting the “deplorable conditions in Men’s Central Jail, both for those incarcerated and those who work inside the place.

WLA’s sources inside MCJ largely focus their complaints on the jail’s medical system. They describe having health symptoms and/or existing conditions that aren’t treated appropriately, or in a timely fashion, or at all.

For example, this month, in addition to the man with the breathing problem, sources described a jail resident who suffered from epilepsy and was prone to seizures.  

According to WLA’s sheriff’s department sources, an incarcerated person who suffers from potential blackout seizures shouldn’t be housed in a single person cell, but should instead be placed in a dorm, with dorm mates who could alert deputies in the event of a seizure.

In the case of the man prone to seizures who was residing in MCJ in a single cell, according to WLA’s sources. The man requested what is known as a seizure helmet, a common accessory recommended for people who have seizures that cause them to fall down.  Reportedly, he never received one.

There also was reportedly a problem with the man getting his anti-seizure medication consistently.

The man reportedly filed a complaint about these issues, and when in the day room, told some of those residents in his unit that he’d never gotten a reply.

One day in March, according to our sources, he did have a seizure alone in his cell, and hit his head. By the time anyone checked on him, the man was reportedly dead.

Now, according to our sources, the man is listed as another of this year’s seven deaths. We have not been able to confirm this account with LASD officials.

Yet, department sources with extensive experience in custody, told us they found the story believable, and that chronic overcrowding, and chronic understaffing, has produced indifference by some LASD officials, who are in a position to mitigate some of the worst problems in inside the jails.

Unconstitutional

We talked with LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman about the deaths at MCJ, and the fears of those inside the facility.

Many of the deaths inside the county’s jails, said Huntsman, while unfortunate, “aren’t predictable or preventable.”

That is not the case, according to the Inspector General, with other deaths.

“We have a substantial and recurring number of deaths in custody that are predictable and preventable,” he said.

One of the primary reasons the county was “not able to prevent” these deaths,” was because of overcrowding.  “We have too many people in custody, and too few people to watch over them.  And too few doctors and staff to care for them in the facilities we currently have.”  

The result, Huntsman said, are conditions in the jails that are unconstitutional.

“For years, I have encouraged the sheriff to release people,” he said.

“However, I believe it’s still the only solution because we don’t have enough room in the jails we have, for the staff we have.”

It may not be the ideal solution, said Huntsman.

“But it’s the constitutionally mandated solution.”

*****

**Editor’s note, April 14, 2024: Since this story was published, there have been three more deaths.

**Editor’s note, April 28, Since this story was published there have been four more deaths.