The lawsuit lays out a litany of charges, ranging from allegations of general overcrowding to mass “infestations of rats and roaches, and no clean water for drinking or bathing.”
California has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles-area officials and institutions, claiming that local jails are so poorly maintained that they violate detainees’ constitutional rights.
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Bonta said that his office began investigating Los Angeles County-area jails in 2021.
“Among other issues,” Bonta said in a statement, “the investigation revealed significant ongoing constitutional violations at Los Angeles County jails, including a significant increase in in-custody deaths … [and] uninhabitable and overcrowded jail facilities with inadequate plumbing, sanitation, and temperature control.”
Bonta’s release acknowledges that the Los Angeles County has made some efforts to reform patrol procedures and operating practices, but says the county has done comparatively little to rectify longstanding issues in its network of jails and detention centers.
“While the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Luna have made a number of reforms to patrol operations during the course of our investigation, they have remained obstinate on the issue of improving the unsafe and unconstitutional conditions at county jails,” Bonta said.
Bonta described Los Angeles-area jails as some of the most problematic in the country—places where inmates are regularly deprived of even the most basic semblance of human dignity.
“We’re going to court because we have no other choice — we will not let Los Angeles County continue to ignore its responsibility to the health, safety, and well-being of the individuals under its care,” he said. “Los Angeles operates the largest jail system in the United States — and one of the most problematic. When we’re talking about feces smeared on the walls and medical care denied to those in need, we’re talking about a disrespect for the basic dignity of our fellow humans and a violation of their most fundamental constitutional rights. We’re confident the court will agree.”
The lawsuit lays out a litany of charges, ranging from general overcrowding to mass “infestations of rats and roaches, and no clean water for drinking or bathing.” Inmates are provided “spoiled, moldy, and nutritionally inadequate meals … [m]any individuals suffer physical or mental deterioration in these punitive conditions but are unable to access necessary medical or mental health care.”
“The County and LASD have been aware of the unconstitutional and deplorable conditions in their jails for decades,” the attorney general’s office said. “Yet instead of addressing root causes or devoting resources to resolving violations of state and federal law that they themselves acknowledge, the County and LASD have continued to resist oversight and accountability, spending millions of dollars to defend and settle litigation about abuses in the jails over the years, without making the necessary changes to their operations and policies and stymying the work of independent oversight bodies to provide some level of transparency and accountability.”
Sources
California AG Rob Bonta files lawsuit over ‘inhumane conditions’ at LA County jails
California sues LA County sheriff over ‘inhumane’ jail conditions
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