This year, 10 people have died in the custody of Los Angeles County jails. Since the start of 2023, a staggering 133 people have died in LA jails.

These tragedies come almost five years after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors committed to closing Men’s Central Jail and underscore the dire urgency with which the Board must finally act to stop this cycle of death.

These deaths occur in the context of Proposition 36, which passed in November 2024 after a misinformation campaign. Prop 36 mandates increased sentences for low-level crimes like drug possession while simultaneously removing funding for vital resources like drug and mental health treatment, homelessness prevention, and victim services centers. More than 5,000 bookings into LA’s jails included at least one Prop 36 charge in the first 10 months of 2025, raising concerns that increases to the jail population due to Prop 36 could cause the death toll to continue to climb even higher. 

What’s killing people in LA County jails?

Overcrowded facilities are the most significant single factor driving jail deaths in Los Angeles. The jail system has operated over capacity for the vast majority of the past five years. Beyond the squalid and cramped conditions, overcrowded jails also limit access to resources, especially medical care. Incarcerated people requesting such care say they have been denied prescribed medications and faced cruel or indifferent treatment from staff. In particular, LA County jails provide horrendous standards of mental health care—despite their standing as the “largest mental health institution” in the United States, with 48 percent of people detained there diagnosed with mental health conditions as of March 18, 2026.

Who has died in county jails?

Los Angeles County does not report the names of the people who die in its custody, providing instead only rudimentary information like the person’s age, date of death, whether they were held pretrial or were awaiting sentencing, and where they were detained, as well as sparse details about the nature of the deaths. When autopsy reports are published, organizers say they have provided inconclusive information and, in some cases, have misclassified deaths. 

Although the county does not disclose the names of those who died in its jails unless legally compelled to, it does share some important demographic information. Of the people who have died in Los Angeles County jails since the start of 2023, 27 percent were Black, and 44 percent were identified by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department as Hispanic. Of those who have died, 62 percent were held pretrial, many because they could not afford bail.

How are people dying?

It typically takes months for Los Angeles County to publicly issue causes of death for people who have died in LA County jails. And even once autopsy reports are finalized, they don’t tell the whole story. When the coroner rules that a death is the result of “natural causes,” jail conditions can still be to blame. Researchers have found evidence of physical harm in more than half of “natural” county jail deaths.

More people died by suicide in county jails in 2021 than in any year since 2013. In 2025, that number jumped again, more than doubling the previous two years. 

What can we do to prevent more people from dying?

A critical first step to prevent more jail deaths is to simply jail fewer people. By reducing the jail population, the county can begin to address the most acute issues threatening the lives of incarcerated people and reduce the burden on staff.

Alternatives to incarceration, like community-based supportive housing, have been proven safe, successful, and cost effective. Eighty-six percent of participants in one such housing program had no new felony convictions after 12 months, with 74 percent retaining stable housing. In recent years, the LA jail system has spent approximately $548 a day to incarcerate one single person in a mental health unit despite a cost of just $207 per day to offer them community-based housing and treatment.

If Los Angeles County is interested in building real public safety, investing in these programs—and reducing its jail death toll—is the easiest path forward. A study by the RAND Corporation found that as many as 61 percent of people held in LA County jails with mental health conditions were appropriate candidates for diversion into existing alternatives to incarceration. 

It is critical that LA follow through on this commitment, as its recent history is dotted with false starts to reform. In 2021, county leaders pledged to close the decrepit and dangerous Men’s Central Jail within two years. Those two years have long passed—yet the jail is still operational, with no concrete plans to close in the foreseeable future.

Beyond the immediate next step of reducing the jail population through more robust community-based services, LA County also needs to address the wholly inadequate conditions facing those who remain locked up. Shoddy and understaffed health care services are obviously contributing to these mounting deaths. The county can meet its basic obligation to prevent more deaths by reducing the jail population and backfilling positions for care providers to help alleviate the staffing crisis.