Los Angeles sheriff to sue county over jail closure under ‘Cares First, Jails Last’ social program

LA County Jail — FILE – This Sept. 28, 2011, photo, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Men’s Central Jail facility shows in Los Angeles. Los Angeles County has cancelled a nearly $2 billion contract to replace an aging jail after criticism that it needs better ways to deal with a growing population of the mentally ill. County supervisors on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, voted to scrap the contract to replace the Men’s Central Jail with a mental health treatment center that critics said was simply another jail. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

LOS ANGELES — For nearly 60 years, Men’s Central Jail has been a stopover for some of the world’s most infamous inmates, including Charles Manson, “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez, “Golden State Killer” Lonnie Franklin, and even celebrities such as OJ Simpson and Sean Penn.

Now a “Care First, Jails Last” program adopted by county lawmakers would close the jail with no plans on how to house the population, which are a third of the county’s 12,100 inmates. The most affected would be the 900 inmates with mental health problems.