central jail

The California Department of Justice will sue the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and its sheriff, Robert Luna, for what Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta called a “humanitarian crisis” inside of the county jails.

Inmates are housed in unsafe, dirty facilities infested with roaches and rats, Bonta said in a news conference Monday, and lack basic access to clean water and edible food. “More alarming, people are dying,” he said.

There have been over 205 in-custody deaths in four years, Bonta said, with 40% caused by suicide, homicides and overdoses. He called for comprehensive reform, but said the county forced his hand by refusing to comply.

“I’d prefer collaboration over litigation, but the county has left us with no choice, so litigation it is,” he said.

Bonta called for L.A. County and the sheriff’s department to provide inmates with adequate medical, dental and mental health care, protect them from harm, provide safe and humane confinement conditions. He also called on jail officials to better accommodate the needs of disabled inmates and those with limited English proficiency.

Bonta painted a dark portrait of L.A. County’s jails, describing filthy conditions, vermin and insect infestations, a lack of clean water and moldy and spoiled food. He said prisoners face difficulty obtaining basic hygiene items and are not permitted to spend enough time outside of their cells.

L.A. County, which houses the largest jail system in the country, has long been criticized for poor conditions. As it has expanded to hold around 13,000 people on any given day, decades — perhaps a century — of mistreatment and overcrowding have been documented.

The system lost a federal lawsuit in 1978 after decades of dirty, mold-ridden and overcrowded jails prompted inmates to fight back through the courts, and frequently faces suits alleging it fails to provide proper food, water and shelter.

The state’s lawsuit comes amid a years-long struggle to close and replace Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, from which inspectors regularly document poor conditions: mold, mildew, insufficient food and water and, more recently, a report last year that said jailers were too busy watching an “explicit video” to notice a noose hung inside a cell.

“In June 2024, the Sybil Brand Commission reported that multiple dorms at Men’s Central were overcrowded with broken toilets, some containing feces that could not be flushed; a urinal that caused ‘effluence to emerge through the mid-floor drain’ when flushed; and ceilings that had been painted over to cover mold,” Bonta’s office wrote in its complaint.

In addition to Luna and the sheriff’s department, the county Department of Health Services, Correctional Health Services and its director, Timothy Belavich, were also named as defendants.

The lawsuit decried the “dilapidated physical condition of the facility and the numerous instances of violence and death within its walls.” It went on to explain that the county Board of Supervisors voted to close the chronically overcrowded Men’s Central Jail twice, including in 2020.

The sheriff’s department has said it would be difficult to close the jail because of the high volume of inmate admissions and lack of viable alternatives.

But in-custody deaths this year are on track for what Bonta’s office described as at least a 20-year high with 36 reported so far, or about one a week, according to the county’s website.

Inmates have been known to set fires in rooms with no smoke alarms — not to cause mischief, but to cook and supplement cold, sometimes inedible meals.

Some inmates — many of whom have been arrested recently and have not been convicted of crimes — are left to sleep on urine-soaked floors with trash bags as blankets and no access to medications and working plumbing. A 2022 lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union called the conditions “medieval.”

“The LASD jails,” the state attorney general’s office wrote in the complaint, “have a longstanding history of deplorable conditions and constitutional violations.”

In a brutal bit of irony, in-custody deaths in Los Angeles were brought to the forefront by a 2023 case in which neither the County Sheriff’s Department or county hospitals would acknowledge that an inmate was in their custody when he died.

Stanley Wilson Jr., a Stanford graduate and former NFL defensive back with the Detroit Lions, died either before, during or after he was transported from the downtown Twin Towers Correctional Facility to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk on Feb. 1, 2023. It was 10 months after he had been arrested for entering a home in the Hollywood Hills during a psychotic break.

The Sheriff’s Department says Wilson died at the hospital. The hospital says he was already dead when he arrived. Nobody will take responsibility. What we do know is he was heavily medicated. Surveillance cameras weren’t operating. His body was bruised.

Frustrated with the lack of answers, Wilson’s parents filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department, the Department of State Hospitals and L.A. County in September, seeking $45 million. Last month they amended their complaint, refiling it in L.A. Superior Court after a federal judge ruled the case is a California state matter.

Trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 8. John Carpenter, the lawyer representing Wilson’s parents, Pulane Lucas and Stanley Wilson Sr., on Wednesday said, “in light of the slow rolling of discovery, that date probably won’t stick.”

What does a grieving parent do in the interim? Lucas organizes protests and other events to increase awareness of in-custody deaths. She writes legislators. She is, in Carpenter’s words, “the embodiment of a mother’s power. Mothers, boy oh boy, they are unstoppable.”

Lucas, who holds a PhD in public policy from Virginia Commonwealth University and three master’s degrees from Harvard, lives in Virginia, where she is president and CEO of Policy Pathways Inc., a firm that trains teens and young adults who desire to become leaders in public policy, public administration and international affairs.

But this Mother’s Day weekend she will be in L.A., camped on the lawn in front of the Men’s Central Jail along with other parents whose children died while in custody. The protest is called Stand With Mothers and will begin with a rally at 3 p.m. Saturday and conclude with a “spiritual event” at 10:30 a.m. Sunday after spending the night.

This is the second year in a row the event has taken place. About a dozen parents turned out and Lucas expects more this year.

“We write as mothers who carry the unimaginable pain of having lost our children while they were in custody,” the statement from the mothers says. “As we approach the Second Annual Mother’s Day Action Weekend — a time that holds both deep sorrow and a powerful sense of solidarity — we were looking forward to honoring our children’s memories together: with a rally, sleepover, and Mother’s Day Service all held on the premises outside the jail where our children’s lives were taken.

“The symbolism of sleeping on the ground — within eyesight of the same buildings where our children took their last breaths yet under the same sky our children were denied access to see — is not just a gesture without impact. It is an act of remembrance, resistance, and love that matters deeply to us.

“As mothers, this gathering is for our children. For our healing. And for the truth.”

Last year’s protest was peaceful despite the presence of sheriff’s deputies in riot gear who were anticipating pro-Palestinian protests across L.A. Lucas raised the mothers’ concerns, speaking with Assistant Deputy Sheriff Sergio Aloma.

“He was very kind and told us they would fall back,” Lucas said. “We slept overnight in tents and he said nobody would bother us. They checked on us and asked if we wanted food and water.

“It was a wonderful weekend, a beautiful time and we are so looking forward to it again.”

Among the mothers joining Lucas will be Terry Lovett, whose 27-year-old son, Jalani, died in 2021 while in solitary confinement at the Men’s Central Jail. The county coroner’s autopsy report said Lovett’s death was “accidental” and that he had fentanyl and heroin in his system, noting that he had a bruise on his neck and abrasions on his arms, but “no external trauma” or “life-threatening injuries.”

Terry Lovett has questions, the primary one being, how did her son access fentanyl while in solitary confinement with interaction only with guards? Civil rights lawyer Christian Contreras filed a claim against the county on behalf of the family in January 2022 — the first step toward a lawsuit — but Lovett said she hasn’t followed through because she would need an independent autopsy conducted and she can’t afford it.

“I’m looking forward to the vigil and spending time with the other mothers,” she said. “It’s comforting. We all share the frustrations and heartbreak of our children dying under suspicious circumstances, and we all need to keep seeking answers.”

Lucas can rattle off her unanswered questions about Stanley Wilson’s death. A judge found him unfit to stand trial because of his deteriorating mental health in November 2022, and ordered him to be treated at Metropolitan State Hospital. Yet he was not transferred until three months later, the day he died.

Sheriff’s Department records show Wilson was on three anti-psychotic medications. Lucas contends that two of them shouldn’t be administered together because they cause anxiety and can lead to a pulmonary embolism, which is what Wilson’s autopsy determined was his cause of death.

As her lawsuit inches toward a trial, she remains dedicated to making sure the voices of parents of inmates who died in custody are heard. Nineteen inmates have died in the custody of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department so far in 2025.

“I have committed my life to initiatives related to Stanley’s life and death that can enlighten and support others and save lives,” Lucas said. “As mothers, we find strength in coming together and advocating for our children.

“We are more than friends. We love each other. We are like sister mothers in solidarity.”