ABOUT OVERINCARCERATION

As COVID-19 infections reached pandemic status in 2020, more than 1 of every 100 working-age American adults were locked up in jail or prison. Because they could take few steps to protect themselves from disease while in cells or closely packed bunks, they became infected at especially high rates. And because most of them eventually went home or came into direct contact with their family members and correctional officers who brought the infection home, jails and prisons became hazardous to the public at large.

But incarceration was already a serious public health hazard long before the pandemic. The absence of so many parents and other adult relatives added, and continues to add, yet one more layer of trauma to communities already saddled with the least wealth, the fewest housing options, the lowest employment levels, the foulest air, the worst-performing schools, the greatest rates of homelessness and the most untreated serious mental illness and substance use disorders …

But the state should also follow L.A. County’s lead by studying a more complete program of alternatives to incarceration, including diversion from the criminal justice system for people accused of nonviolent crimes who are dealing with mental illness. Assembly Bill 1670 by Assembly Members Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) and Chad Mayes (I-Rancho Mirage) would create a commission to consider options.

Police and prosecutorial organizations oppose the proposal for the same reason they oppose most criminal justice reforms: It falls outside the scope of their arrest-and-jail approach. But that’s part of the dismal cycle that drives so many poor health outcomes in so many communities. California needs to free itself from that self-destructive approach.