John,
We just WON something huge!!! Los Angeles canceled plans to build a new $1.7 billion jail disguised as a mental health treatment center.
Countless lives will be impacted for the better. Not only will this mean thousands fewer people in jail – but it could set a national precedent that we need better mental health care, not jails. Thank you to everyone who fought back and built power for this.
LA County has the largest jail system in America. If we build the right model here, it could be a blueprint for the rest of the country.
The next step is passing the Reform LA Jails ballot initiative, which would move huge amounts of money out of jails and into mental health care.
Criminalizing mentally ill people is not just an LA issue. LA is a microcosm of what’s happening across the country. You can go to Cook County in Chicago. You can go to Rikers Island in New York. But if we can stop a mental health jail in LA, we can stop mental health jails everywhere.
It took a multi-pronged strategy to do what we did on Tuesday: More than a decade of work with local organizations and grasstops. A leadership team that was clear about goals and clear about power. Survivors – most of us were children visiting our parents who were locked up inside of those jails.
Everyone knows someone with a mental health condition. Jail only exacerbates their conditions. It does not help. We need community-based treatment.
At Real Justice, our goal is to end mass incarceration. We spend most of our resources electing district attorneys who will reform the justice system and use jail as a last resort. But stopping the construction of new jails is an important part of our work. Jails are part of the machinery that makes mass incarceration possible. Every jail project we stop gets us closer to turning the tide.
It’s been nearly 20 years since my brother was first arrested and our family was stripped of our dignity. He emerged from prison a brutalized man. He has continued to struggle with mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder. He’s been in and out of psychiatric facilities. He served another prison term.
What might Monte’s story be like – and so many others’ – had LA invested in his rehabilitation instead of in jails and prisons? What if they’d been given the opportunity to pay for their mistakes without paying with their health, their futures, and their lives?
We won’t ever know the answer to those questions. But it’s up to all of us to make sure the lives of others turn out differently.
-- Patrisse Cullors
P.S. Please follow me on Instagram here for more important updates about this work.
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Paid for by Real Justice PAC, realjusticepac.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
Authorized by Reform LA Jails, A Committee Supporting Jail Reform and Community Reinvestment.
Sponsored by Justice Teams Network, A Project of Tides Advocacy. Committee Major Funding by Open Philanthropy Action Fund and Tides Advocacy. FPPC ID #1403015.
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