(Headline USA) The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is reportedly considering a “decarceration” policy that would empty out its jails, releasing many current prisoners.
The policy, which will be debated during the board’s meeting on Tuesday, is called “Los Angeles County to Take Actionable Next Steps to Depopulate and Decarcerate the Los Angeles County Jails: Granting Local Authority, Advocating for Court and State Support, and Legislative Changes.”
If the proposal passes, it would “declare the state of mental health services and overcrowding in the Los Angeles County jails a humanitarian crisis, requiring the County to move with all deliberate speed on meaningful solutions; and prioritize decreasing the number of individuals entering the Los Angeles County Jails” through a number of measures.
One such measure would require law enforcement to “cite and release individuals with aggregate bail amounts set at $50,000 or below” and “adopt a zero bail schedule for individuals accused of low-level offenses, infractions, misdemeanors, and felony offenses.”
The supervisors behind the proposal – Hildal Solis and Lindsey Horvath – argued that emptying out the county’s jails is necessary to “redress historical wrongs.”
“To depopulate and decarcerate is a monumental task, and the Board is committed to redress historical wrongs, deeply rooted in systemic racism and prejudice, and reverse status quo responses to poverty, mental health and medical needs, and substance use dependencies,” they wrote in a motion.
The county’s prosecutors, however, are objecting to the policy proposal, warning it would make crime in the city even worse.
“The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ motion to gut parts of the criminal justice system without input from stakeholders is dangerous and recklessness,” Eric Siddall, vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, told Fox News. “The authors sought no advice from those who know and understand public safety issues. They seek to lower the jail population without addressing the root causes of crime or protecting the public.”
