Men's Central Jail is a

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

county jail for men in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

, United States. Built in 1963, it is one of the oldest

county jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

s in California. The Men's Central Jail is located at 441 Bauchet St., Los Angeles 90012. The Men's Central Jail houses men who are awaiting trial or who have been convicted of crimes. The Men's Central Jail is considered one of the largest jails in the world. In May 2013, along with the adjacent Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Men's Central Jail was ranked as one of the ten worst prisons in the United States, based on reporting in ''Mother Jones'' magazine. On July 7, 2020, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4–0 to pursue a plan to close the Men's Central Jail within 12 months. In voting to eventually close the 57-year-old facility, county supervisors said they wanted to focus on community-based programs to treat mental health challenges of those entering and exiting the jail system administered by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The vote came amid deliberate inmate reductions during

outbreaks In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

movement protests over police violence and the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

Construction and population

The construction of the Men's Central Jail was finished in 1963. The original building was designed to house 3,323 inmates. In 1976, an addition was added to the structure at the cost of $35 million, and by December 1990, inmate capacity was 5,276. Men's Central Jail has severe

overcrowding Overcrowding or crowding is the condition where more people are located within a given space than is considered tolerable from a safety and health perspective. Safety and health perspectives depend on current environments and on local cultural ...

, leading to problems such as inmates lacking shower facilities, very short recreation times out of their cells, wearing dirty clothes for up to a week, and inmates sleeping on floors for extended periods of time. In March 1997, the inmate population was about 13,000, and saw similarly high numbers by June 2015, where the inmate population was about 17,000 and increased to 19,000 by August, where the legal limits on the jail population were only for 15,000 inmates.

Notable inmates

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

, recording artist *

Suge Knight Marion Hugh "Suge" Knight Jr. ( ; born April 19, 1965) is an American former record executive, former National Football League, NFL player, and convicted felon, who is the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records. Knight was a central f ...

* Todd Bridges, actor, ''

Diff'rent Strokes ''Diff'rent Strokes'' is an American television sitcom, which originally aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and ...

'' * Drakeo the Ruler, rapper *

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, actor * Richard Goldberg, sex offender *

Kelsey Grammer Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained fame for his role as the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984–1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993–2004, and again F ...

, actor *

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Known for reaching a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, he is widely regarded ...

, comedian *

Tommy Lee Thomas Lee (born Thomas Lee Bass; October 3, 1962) is an American musician who co-founded and plays drums for the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He also founded rap metal band Methods of Mayhem and has pursued solo musical projects. Early ...

Mötley Crüe Mötley Crüe is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Hollywood, California, in 1981 by bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, with guitarist Mick Mars and lead vocalist Vince Neil joining right after. The band has sol ...

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* Scott Weiland * Erik Menendez *

Richard Ramirez Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), better known as Richard Ramirez, was an American serial killer and sex offender whose killing spree occurred in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area in the ...

O. J. Simpson Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) ...

* Shorty Rossi, reality TV personality *

YG (rapper) Keenon Dequan Ray Jackson (born March 9, 1990), better known by his stage name YG (short for Young Gangsta), is an American rapper. He released his debut mixtape ''4Fingaz'' in 2008, and its follow-up, ''The Real 4Fingaz'', the following year. ...

* Ron Jeremy, pornographic actor *

Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein (, ; born March 19, 1952) is an American film producer and convicted sex offender. In 1979, Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent ...

, former film producer * Edward Furlong, actor * Danny Masterson, former actor

Services

Men's Central Jail provides some services to its inmates. Inmates can attend self-help classes on

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

alcohol abuse Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of alcohol-related substance abuse. This spectrum can range from being mild, moderate, or severe. This can look like consumption of more than 2 drinks per day on average for men, or more than 1 drink per ...

, and

substance abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definition ...

. Religious services are provided to inmates in the wake of several

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...

lawsuits. As of 2004, selected inmates can earn a GED while incarcerated.

Violence and lawsuits

The ACLU has sued Men's Central Jail for major

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

violations. The

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

has also sued the Men's Central Jail. In 2013, federal prosecutors charged 18 Sheriff's Deputies with excessive use of force. In June 2015, Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies were found guilty of beating a handcuffed man at the Men's Central Jail.

References

External links