L.A. County supervisors approve ballot measure to restore funds for jail alternatives
L.A. County quietly admits it erased funding for jail alternatives and is now rushing a ballot fix after the damage is done.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to place a measure on the November ballot that would amend the county charter and restore funding for programs meant to keep people out of jail.
What the board won’t say outright is that the funding mechanism was wiped out by an earlier, apparently accidental repeal of the very charter language that protected it. The result: alternatives to incarceration that county leaders once touted as progressive successes now operate without the dedicated revenue stream voters thought they had approved.
Instead of simply correcting the error through ordinary legislation, supervisors chose the more cumbersome route of asking voters to fix Sacramento’s or their own drafting mistake in November. The move reveals how dependent these “jail alternatives” have become on earmarked dollars that proved far more fragile than advertised.
Buried in the decision is an admission that the county’s much-celebrated shift away from incarceration rests on procedural sand. Once the charter protection vanished, so did the guarantee that those dollars would actually reach diversion programs, mental-health courts, or re-entry services rather than the general fund.
Now voters are being asked to clean up the supervisors’ paperwork. The ballot measure is framed as restoration, but it is really a retroactive ratification of an unforced error that should never have occurred.
Whether November voters will trust the same officials who let the funding evaporate remains the open question. The county’s appetite for alternatives appears real; its competence at protecting the money does not.
Original reporting: LA Times.
Original reporting: LA Times, California.
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