Written by Meg O’Connor, this article dives into the depths of the carceral system and unsuccessful attempts at carceral reforms in the US, specifically in Los Angeles. O’Connor exposes the harmful conditions in which inmates are forced to live in. The article is one of the pieces in the ongoing series of discoveries about the LA county jails and the concerns for the increase of mentally ill inmates in LA county jails suffering from horrid and unsanitary conditions of the cells–inmates not having safe clothing, feces smeared on cell walls, flooded toilets, garbage overflows, etc. 

Despite being excoriated by the Department of Justice in 2015 and sentenced to a “mandatory federal monitoring program, which required that Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) address inadequate mental healthcare and excessive force by guards inside the jails'', the conditions in LA county jails continue to worsen over the next 7 years, and there have been little to no improvements. O’Connor draws attention to the vulnerable population, mentally ill people who are not receiving the care and proper treatments they deserve. The article encourages readers to recognize the reality of the carceral system that we have, urging for positive changes as these people understand how the system lacks care work and needs a transformative approach to incarceration. Activists propose care-based solutions, which are collaborations of the courts to “reduce the jail population by permanently changing the rules around cash bail, increasing diversions to community-based programs, and giving the Sheriff’s Department more flexibility in releasing individuals from custody when appropriate.” O’Connor exposes us to a new world with an approach beyond prison reforms–a demand for rehabilitation for inmates in the current U.S.  carceral system– and it’s a world worth examining.