Reform L.A. County Jails Campaign To Host Summit On Mental Health
Reform L.A. County Jails (RLJ) will host a summit on November 9 aimed at holistically raising awareness about mass incarceration and mental illness, according to a press release sent to BET.
The RLJ Summit with founder and chair Patrisse Cullors will also encourage the local community to vote “yes” on the Reform L.A. Jails measure that will be on the California presidential primary ballot on March 3, 2020, according to the release.
Special guests are slated to participate in the RLJ summit, which also includes a day party, performances, an art exhibition and more, to uplift the stories of members of the L.A. community while simultaneously generating the political support necessary to fix L.A. County’s broken jail system, the press release states.
RLJ has already celebrated major victories including the #CancelMcCarthyContract, which called for Los Angeles County officials to cancel plans to build a new mental health hospital that Cullors described as a “death trap” that could pose a greater threat to both the incarcerated and mentally ill population instead of improving their situation.
“Jail expansion is unnecessary,” Cullors told BET in July, adding that the incarcerated population is “mainly homeless, mentally ill, poor, and minorities.”
“We need to look at the root causes of incarceration, like poverty, lack of access to mental health care, and addiction,” Cullors continued. “Incarceration, which doesn’t fix these issues.”
Reform L.A. Jails represents a coalition of citizens, community leaders, businesses and organizations that recognize the need for more effective strategy to reduce recidivism, prevent crime and permanently reduce the population of people cycling in and out of jail that are experiencing mental health, drug dependency or chronic homelessness issues, according to the press release.
The upcoming Mental Health Summit will be held at A Noise Within Theatre, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107, on November 9 from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
