Guest Commentary: Because we lack proper mental health care services in our community, Santa Barbara County jails are often used as a last resort to house people with mental illness.
Guest Commentary: Because we lack proper mental health care services in our community, Santa Barbara County jails are often used as a last resort to house people with mental illness.
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The action came just a few weeks away from a hearing in which a federal judge is slated to decide whether the county is in contempt of court for failing to improve conditions at the jail complex downtown.
Coroners' records reviewed by LAist show a jump in suicides inside L.A. County’s downtown jail complex in 2021. Jail officials and county-appointed monitors alike say the state of mental health care in the jails is severely deficient.
Ahmanise Sanati helped get books on every floor of Twin Towers jail when she worked there, but the effort fizzled out after she left. Now she’s revving up jail book drives from the outside.
The county Board of Supervisors directed officials from a wide array of its criminal justice and health agencies to develop recommendations for creating secure but "non-correctional" treatment facilities for inmates with the greatest need for care.
Current and former medical staff describe a working environment that is dysfunctional, abusive and detrimental to providing health care, with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Henderson at the center of the storm.