LA County Approves $2 Billion Jail; Majority of Cells Designated for Mentally Ill

Fact: Los Angeles County recently approved a $2 billion project for a new 4,860 bed county jail to be built by a private contractor. 

Fact: 3,260 of the beds – 67 percent – are intended for those suffering from mental illnesses. 

Fact: About 75% of inmates with mental illnesses are re-incarcerated into L.A. county jails – almost four times the rate of comparable cities, like Miami, which has a recidivism rate among the mentally ill of 20%.

Fact: In L.A. county, it costs $20,412/year to support a person with mental illness in a housing program. 

Fact: In L.A. county, it costs about $60,000/year to incarcerate a person with mental illness. 

Source: L.A. County Jail Plan is a $2 Billion Blunder That Embraces Incarceration, Not Treatment, for Mentally Ill, LA Weekly. 

Philadelphia School District Employs 450 Full-Time Police Officers

Fact: In 2008, the school district of Philadelphia employed 450 full-time law enforcement personnel. 

Fact: Several other U.S. public school systems employed over one hundred full-time law enforcement personnel, including Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Palm Beach, Las Vegas, and Baltimore school districts.

Source: “Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2008,” Bureau of Justice Statistics

7 Neighborhoods, 75% of Inmates

Fact: New York, 75 percent of inmates come from just seven neighborhoods: Harlem, Brownsville, East New York, South Bronx, South Jamaica, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the Lower East Side.

 

Source: N+1, Raise the Crime Rate