feet. take care of my responsibilities, don t break the law. with only the clothes on his back and a couple of bus tokens in his pocket, daniel johns walks out of jail once again a free man. in 2006, increased violence, much of it between black and hispanic inmates, resulted in injuries and even death in the los angeles county jail system. sheriff lee baca blames the violence on a lack of staff, saying that his decision to close some facilities in order to deal with a budget shortfall has forced far fewer deputies to watch over a growing inmate population. that s our report.
throw off all their clothing to make it look like they re not ready to leave. but for the most part it s all an act and they ll still get released. because the streets of l.a. offer no support for inmates trying to get back on their feet, the sheriff s department created a community transition unit to help former inmates with the basic necessities. well, part of the process is to begin changing a system that was primarily focused on incarcerating people. and although we ve for decades had thousands of inmates involved in educational vocational programs, what we were not doing was linking them with community resources. lieutenant mike parker supervises the community transition unit, which assists inmates in getting jobs and finding a place to live after jail. in the first few minutes when somebody gets out of jail i hear from inmates, social workers, homeless shelter people, you name it. the first few minutes when they leave the jail is the most
but also modern health care that provides the array of services that allows them to live independently. i would say, craig, there are certain things that haven t changed. that s what we need to continue to work on. because if president kennedy were alive today and walked through any of our jails in america as i did just two weeks ago in our cook county jail, the cook county jail is the largest single mental health institution in the country. the los angeles county jail system has the largest percentage of people with mental illness of any institution in the nation. so what in some senses we ve done in failing to reach president kennedy s vision is we have had a public health system in mental health like we have in other areas of health care. you re holding this mental health summit in boston with, among others, vice president joe
it doesn t matter if they re a black gang, an asian gang, a hispanic gang, or a white gang. if they re active in los angeles county and they get arrested, they end up coming to the los angeles county jail system. the osj unit must rely on communication to help prevent gang violence. solving crime is all about getting the information from somebody. it s not physical evidence. we ain t with nobody. it s just mainly a money thing. mainly we just doing our thing. everybody s doing their individual thing. you have had a history of feuding with who? blacks or hispanics? throughout the years over there. it s been a history of whoever stepped on our toes.
it doesn t matter if they re a black gang, an asian gang, a hispanic gang, or a white gang. if they re active in los angeles county and they get arrested, they end up coming to the los angeles county jail system. the osj unit must rely on communication to help prevent gang violence. solving crime is all about getting the information from somebody. it s not physical evidence. we ain t with nobody. it s just mainly a money thing. mainly we just doing our thing. everybody s doing their individual thing. you have had a history of feuding with who? blacks or hispanics? throughout the years over there. it s been a history of whoever stepped on our toes. knowing which gangs are fighting each other helps the osj unit decide who to remove from general population and where to search for weapons. we have found them with hacksaw blades, anything that