los angeles county

When we see police sweeping a homeless encampment, we must ask: How much did this cost? And what difference could that money have made if it went instead to housing—or, better yet, the people themselves?

A controversial death in Los Angeles this year underscores the broader failure of law enforcement agencies to keep accurate data on people who die in their custody.

Police say they need pay raises to help with hiring and retention. But crime has been falling in LA, even as the department reports having its lowest number of officers in decades.

Los Angeles County lawmakers should enshrine the zero-bail rules into law so people in Los Angeles County jails can see their families.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has taken legal action against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to stop deputies from hitting incarcerated people in the head so often. Yesterday, LASD said it should not be forced to change.

A preliminary injunction issued this week forbids officials from forcing people charged with low-level offenses to remain in jail because they cannot afford bail.

America’s largest county has launched numerous initiatives to shrink its jail population and divert people with mental illness from jail entirely. Here’s an explainer on what the major initiatives are and what, if any, progress has been made.

Los Angeles County is imprisoning more people with mental illness than it did a decade ago—but is failing to provide them with basic treatment. The U.S. Department of Justice says the county jail system is decrepit, dangerous, and unfit to house anyone—let alone people with mental illness.

In 2015, Los Angeles County created a program to reduce the number of mentally ill people trapped in jail. But since then, the number of people with mental illness incarcerated in LA has instead increased significantly.

County officials agree that conditions have deteriorated at L.A.’s Inmate Reception Center. But they’re resisting calls for substantive change.

The Board of Supervisors wields enormous power over a county government apparatus that includes the DA’s office, probation department, and sheriffs.

DA Jackie Lacey and challenger George Gascón outlined diverging visions for the top prosecutor’s office in the nation’s most populous county.

While adults in the county have been granted expedited release in groups, the juvenile court continues to review cases individually.

Lack of evidence does not stop opponents of former San Francisco DA George Gascón from making the claim that the city’s criminal justice reforms unleashed a crime wave.

The gang database in the state gives police increased authority to approach and harass people for virtually no reason at all.