Even if an inmate's sentence is not oppressively long, their treatment while incarcerated can still constitute subhuman treatment. Prisons are not medical facilities, but they regularly are forced to deal with mental health problems and care for elderly and terminally ill inmates. Food, if it's even edible, usually lacks enough nutrition for inmates' health to not deteriorate. Plus, with a lack of opportunities to see family, read, or gain skill sets, inmates are placed in buildings which lack any resemblance of the civilized world.
“The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to terminate a plan to replace the Men’s Central Jail facility with a $1.7 billion new jail. In doing so, the Supervisors voted to explore ways to invest the billions in a more sensible and progressive manner – like opting for a community based mental health care facility managed by the Department of Health, instead of a new shiny jail managed by the Department of Corrections.“
City Limits
September 27, 2019
Read More“On Tuesday (August 13), the 3,885-bed facility, which was slated to house pretrial detainees with mental health and substance abuse issues, was scrapped in large part due to years of activism from prison reform groups and added to a growing nationwide trend of halting the expansion of mass incarceration in favor of investing in community-based treatment programs and other alternatives.“
BET
August 15, 2019
Read More“If the LA county-wide initiative passes, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Civilian Oversight Commission will be granted subpoena and investigative power to effectively and independently investigate misconduct; the commission will also have the power to develop a plan that will reduce jail populations and redirect the cost savings into alternatives to incarceration.“
Essence
March 4, 2019
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