Since the Attorney General’s Office opened a civil rights investigation in 2021, the Sheriff’s Department has made a number of reforms but remains obstinate on persistent civil rights violations at its jails.

September 8, 2025 - LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a lawsuit against the County of Los Angeles (County), Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), and County Correctional Health Services (CHS) over unconstitutional and inhumane conditions at Los Angeles County jails. In 2021, the Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation into whether LASD had engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. Among other issues, the investigation revealed significant ongoing constitutional violations at Los Angeles County jails, including a significant increase in in-custody deaths, despite decreases in the jail population size; uninhabitable and overcrowded jail facilities with inadequate plumbing, sanitation, and temperature control, which has contributed to multiple deaths; and a failure to provide adequate medical and mental health care to people inside the jails. Following extensive engagement with the County and LASD, including Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, during which they refused to agree to the comprehensive solutions necessary to improve conditions at all county jails, Attorney General Bonta today filed a lawsuit to compel much-needed reforms. 

“In recent years, my office has successfully negotiated settlements with law enforcement agencies across California to reform their practices, including most recently, an agreement with the neighboring city of Torrance,” said Attorney General Bonta. "While the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Luna have made a number of reforms to patrol operations during the course of our investigation, they have remained obstinate on the issue of improving the unsafe and unconstitutional conditions at county jails. We’re going to court because we have no other choice —  we will not let Los Angeles County continue to ignore its responsibility to the health, safety, and well-being of the individuals under its care. Los Angeles operates the largest jail system in the United States — and one of the most problematic. When we’re talking about feces smeared on the walls and medical care denied to those in need, we’re talking about a disrespect for the basic dignity of our fellow humans and a violation of their most fundamental constitutional rights. We’re confident the court will agree."

The Attorney General’s investigation found that Los Angeles County jails are uninhabitable and under-resourced. People incarcerated in the Los Angeles County jails, many of whom are awaiting trial, are forced to live in filthy cells with broken and overflowing toilets, infestations of rats and roaches, and no clean water for drinking or bathing. They are provided spoiled, moldy, and nutritionally inadequate meals; little to no access to hygiene supplies, such as soap, toilet paper, and menstrual products; little to no clean clothing and bedding; and almost no time outside their cells. Many individuals suffer physical or mental deterioration in these punitive conditions but are unable to access necessary medical or mental health care. The lack of access to care contributes to the shocking rate of preventable in-custody deaths, such as suicides. According to LASD’s own data over the last three years, the number of preventable deaths inside the jails has continued to climb under Sheriff Luna. The lack of access to medical and mental health care also leaves incarcerated persons woefully ill-equipped to re-enter society at large and hinders any meaningful rehabilitation of those serving sentences. 

The County and LASD have been aware of the unconstitutional and deplorable conditions in their jails for decades. Yet instead of addressing root causes or devoting resources to resolving violations of state and federal law that they themselves acknowledge, the County and LASD have continued to resist oversight and accountability, spending millions of dollars to defend and settle litigation about abuses in the jails over the years, without making the necessary changes to their operations and policies and stymying the work of independent oversight bodies to provide some level of transparency and accountability. While LASD has made a number of improvements to its policing practices — especially in patrols — over the course of many years and multiple consent decrees, the County and LASD have failed to implement agreed-upon reforms designed to address similar constitutional violations that persist in the jails.  

In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta seeks injunctive and declaratory relief that would require the County, LASD and Sheriff Luna, and CHS and its Director to implement overarching reforms in county jails including, but not limited to: (1) providing constitutionally adequate medical, dental, and mental healthcare to incarcerated persons; (2) protecting incarcerated persons from an unreasonable risk of harm; (3) providing habitable, humane, and safe conditions of confinement; (4) respecting the dignity and health of incarcerated persons; (5) ensuring health care requests are addressed promptly and fully; (6) providing reasonable accommodations and equal access to programs, services, and activities for incarcerated persons with disabilities; and (7) providing access to multilingual, interpretation, and translation services for incarcerated persons with limited English proficiency.

Attorney General Bonta is committed to strengthening accountability in local law enforcement as one key part of the broader effort to increase public safety for all Californians. Last month, Attorney General Bonta announced an enforceable agreement requiring Torrance Police Department (TPD) to engage in a comprehensive set of reforms — which TPD voluntarily entered into — to improve TPD’s organizational health and relationship with the community. In 2024, Attorney General Bonta announced the conclusion of DOJ oversight of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), after SFPD achieved substantial compliance with recommended reforms to its policing policies and practices. He secured a settlement agreement with the City of Vallejo and the Vallejo Police Department requiring reforms to the department’s policies and practices. Attorney General Bonta is also engaged in ongoing pattern or practice investigations into the Antioch Police Department stemming from allegations of bigoted text messages and other potentially discriminatory misconduct, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department following allegations of excessive force, and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office relating to conditions of confinement in jail facilities.

A copy of the lawsuit, filed today in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, is available here. 

Source: CA. DOJ