The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently approved the final environmental impact report for the Consolidated Correctional Treatment Facility–otherwise known as the new “mental health jail”. The approval green lights, what opponents to the project are calling “a wasteful spending of over $2.2 billion to build nearly 4,000 new jail cells for an already failing jail system.” “Los Angeles County is the largest county in the U.S. with the largest jail system in the world,” explained Reform L.A. Jails Campaign Director Jasmyne Cannick. “Instead of planning on how to keep people out of jail we are planning for people to go to jail.” But the supervisors don’t quite see it that way. The new facility is meant, they said, to become a national model for in the way medical and mental health services are provided to the growing inmate-patient population in the criminal justice system. “By embarking on this project, the County is invested in... Continue Reading...