The day after I read a report by the Vera Institute of Justice on the astronomical number of deaths in the Los Angeles County Jail, I acted. I held a press briefing in front of the Men’s Central Jail downtown.
More than 100 men have died at the jail in the last three years. We’re barely past the midpoint of 2025 and already 26 have died at the jail. That’s a record pace for the year.
I asked two questions at the briefing. The first: Why are so many men dying behind bars at the L.A. County Jail. The second: Why is the Sheriff’s Department stone silent on the deaths. That includes, first and foremost, identifying the dead men and the cause of their death.
A letter was sent to County Sheriff Robert Luna requesting full public disclosure of the identities of the men who died in police custody and the cause of their death. Anything less smacks of a cover-up by the department.
Even more galling and suspect, it took a Freedom of Information filing in 2023 to get the department to release the names of the dead men The department released only the names and ages, but not cause of death.
I guessed from their names that a substantial number were Hispanic, and almost certainly another substantial number were African American. But what really was eye-popping was their age.
The overwhelming majority of the men were in their 20s and 30s. That made their deaths even more tragic and suspect. Death at that early age?
Over the years, there have been federally mandated investigations, consent decrees and prisoner and advocacy group lawsuits to implement massive reforms in the operation and maintenance of the jail. There have also been countless calls and proposals from the county Board of Supervisors to shutter the Men’s Jail. That has not happened.
And the deaths as well as the constant complaints of abuse, violence and poor safety, health and sanitary conditions in the jail continue to pile up.
Worse, the number of those incarcerated within the county jail system is again on the rise after several years of decline. The passage of the hard-nosed, tough on crime and sentencing, passage of Proposition 36 last year virtually ensured the reversal in the jail population numbers.
And what a reversal. In the months following the enactment of the proposition the number of those being detained under Proposition 36 mandate increased by a staggering 4,308%.
It may get worse. Last August, the supervisors seemed to inch back from their often-expressed intention to close the jail. There was the growing sentiment that violent crime was on the rise and that many of those incarcerated at the jail could not be referred to non-imprisonment diversion programs.
“Overcrowding and staff prone to both negligence and flagrant mistreatment towards incarcerated people have continued to make [the Men’s Central Jail], and the county jail system at large, a dangerous, even fatal, place to be,” noted Michelle Parris, director of the Vera California initiative. “This current inertia — stalling on closing Men’s Central Jail, dismissing alternatives to incarceration and failing to make real strides toward solving the issues that drive incarceration, like homelessness and substance use — cannot continue.”
Unfortunately, it has. And that brings us back to the issue of accountability.
That can’t happen when the Sheriff’s Department will not publicly identify those who have died and their cause of death. That leaves criminal justice advocates groping in the dark for who they were and why they died.
In its report, the Vera Institute was able to shed a glimmer of light on this tormenting question. As previously noted, the victims were young. Many of them had not been sentenced.
Some of the deaths were reported as “accidental.” However, there was no clarification on just what caused the accident.
The failure to identify the dead inmates and give complete details on the cause of their death has enraged relatives and family members of the deceased inmates. They have staged rallies and held press conferences demanding that supervisors and the Sheriff’s Department act to end the blackout on the jail death toll. So far, those protests have been met with official silence.
The issue though will not magically disappear. With the harsh sentencing from Proposition 36 on the books, and county supervisors foot dragging on closing the Jail or at least mandating massive reforms in its operations, there will be more bodies packed into the jail.
That can only mean one thing. There will be more deaths under dubious circumstances with no identification of who died and why they died. That means more grief, handwringing and anger by family members.
Sheriff Luna and the supervisors have a duty and obligation to end the trauma that causes. The solution is on the table for them: full public disclosure. Now.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of multiple books on race and politics in America. His weekly Hutchinson Report is streamed on Facebook Livestream.
