During Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s recent appearance before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Hilda Solis asked if he had had any thoughts relating to the County’s Jail Closure Implementation Team (JCIT).

In June of 2021, guided by the “Care First, Jail’s Last” vision, Solis co-authored a motion that created JCIT, the goal of which was to “close and demolish Men’s Central Jail (MCJ) without constructing any new jail facilities — including jail-like “treatment centers.”

After Hochman acknowledged meeting with the recently hired head of JCIT, he said he had visited the facility many times during his legal career.

He then shared his opinions about MCJ, describing it as an “absolutely dangerous, inhumane, unsanitary place: bad for inmates, bad for the jailers, bad for the lawyers and bad for the public.”

He said it couldn’t offer meaningful rehabilitation services because of the way it was designed — that the facility, built in 1963, was decades beyond its shelf life and should be “cratered — taken to the ground”.

But while agreeing the jail had to be closed, he spoke against Supervisor Solis’ crusade to level MCJ without a replacement.

Hochman told the Board that such a goal can’t responsibly be done:

“It (the jail) holds 4000 inmates and has 1000 single cells that are needed to house inmates — sufficiently dangerous — who can’t safely be placed with others.”

He reminded the board that there aren’t 1,000 single cells anywhere else in the county system. Where were these individuals to be housed?

Hochman also told the board what he believes must be done in light of the county’s responsibilities: “We need to build some kind of — whatever you want to call it — care campus, community detention or rehabilitation facility, with 1,000 state of the art mental health beds. I want a facility where Norway would look at it and say they wished they had that facility.”

Hochman asked rhetorically, “Is it going to be expensive”?

He answered emphatically, “it will be”. He asked, ‘Is it absolutely necessary?” He answered, “100 percent.”

He ended by endorsing the idea that a society should not be measured by the quality of its museums but by the quality of its detention facilities concluding, ‘’by that metric, the county is not succeeding”.

It is doubtful that Supervisor Solis was pleased with the response in light of having led the ongoing effort to prevent alternatives to the dungeon like MCJ.

She has joined others who promote the delusion that thousands of inmates in County jails can be responsibly and safely diverted to non-custodial facilities.

For the past six years, she has promoted unattainable ‘jail closure’ efforts and deadlines. Solis and other board members have ignored their responsibilities, while creating new entities to “study” how to thread an impossible needle: leveling MCJ without a replacement.

She and fellow board members would rather have thousands of inmates, disproportionately minorities, live in wretched facilities than be responsible for financing the construction of a new jail.

This policy continues to be a stain on Los Angeles County government.

One goal the board has attained: getting around the responsibility of doing what our newly elected district attorney proposes — providing an adequate and constitutionally compliant facility that can provide adequate housing and care for inmates.

It appears the majority of supervisors don’t want their legacy to be associated with building a jail, no matter how essential — no matter the moral imperative to do so.

DA Hochman has already adjusted his filing policies to provide more accountability for offenders and safety for our community.

That’s his job. Financing a modern, adequate and constitutionally compliant jail facility…that’s the board’s job.

Joseph Charney of South Pasadena is a retired deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County.