Los Angeles County leaders want the Sheriff’s Department to tighten security measures within the jail system as inmate deaths continue to rise.
Ten people died in the LA County Jail in the first two months of this year, putting the region on the verge of another record year for deaths in custody. Autopsies to determine the causes of all the deaths are pending.
County commissioners voted 4 to 0 Tuesday to movementcreated by Supervisor Janice Hahn, requires the Sheriff’s Department to take a series of measures to reduce inmate deaths, including expanding access to the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone, more closely monitoring cameras and strengthening security checks.
“If we don’t fix this now, we will see another year of deaths in County jails – a record we don’t want to repeat,” the proposal said.
The death rate exceeded the pace of 2025, where nine people died at the end of February. The year ended with 46 deaths in custody, up from 32 deaths reported in 2024.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger bowed out of the vote, saying the district can’t deal with the death rate without building a new facility.
“We must be honest about the limitations of institutions that were never designed to accommodate today’s people,” he said in a statement. “I have been advocating for a modern transitional center that focuses on treatment and rehabilitation because that is where the real solution lies.”
Sheriff Robert Luna admitted this month that 2026 is “not off to a good start.” He challenged that it was because the county was booking people who were older and sicker than people before and who needed more care than the prison system could provide. Four out of five people face a mental or physical problem, the department said.
“Every time I am told that someone I care for has died, it is like being kicked in the cradle,” said Luna.
The ministry said in a statement that it has “taken serious measures to prevent drug use and violence,” but believes that “no prison system can eliminate all the dangers when people enter prisons who are already seriously ill.”
Administrators voted more than four years ago to close the Men’s Central Jail, a downtown facility with a reputation for dangerous and deteriorating conditions, without building another. Since then, inspectors have continued to find a number of problems inside the prison, including carbon monoxide and food shortages.
“The truth is that we need to close Men’s Central,” said Peggy Lee Kennedy, one of the callers to the board meeting who urged the district to expedite the closure. “Why are all these people living there with serious mental health problems instead of getting the help they really need?”
The district continues to deal with the government about the conditions inside the prison. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta sued the Sheriff’s Department in September saying inmates are “forced to live in filthy cells with broken and overflowing toilets, infested with rats and rocks, and no clean water for drinking or bathing.”
Bonta alleged that inmates were denied mental and medical care, leading to “an alarming number of deaths inside prisons, most of which are caused by preventable conditions, such as drug overdose, suicide, or violence among inmates.”
Times staff writer Salvador Hernandez contributed reporting.
