Protesters and families of inmates call for complete shutdown of Men's Central Jail

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A group of protesters and families of inmates rallied in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday, calling for the complete shutdown of Men's Central Jail.

Many of the people who gathered outside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles have had a member of their family die in custody at the jail.

So far, there have been 31 in-custody deaths in county jails there this year, according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

"We must make them shut down Men's Central Jail by 2025," said Helen Jones, whose son died while in custody.

JusticeLA, the ACLU and other groups are asking the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to shut down the 60-year-old facility that some described as "a dangerous and deadly dungeon."

"We need a care infrastructure. We need mental health care. We need treatment beds to get our people out of this dungeon," said Mark Anthony Clayton Johnson of Dignity and Power Now.

A couple of years ago, the Board of Supervisors put together the Jail Closure Implementation Team.

According to the L.A. County chief executive officer's website, the team's mission is to safely and methodically depopulate and eventually close Men's Central Jail. It is guided by the "Care First, Jail Last" vision.

"We need transparency around the circumstances of people's death and we need the Board of Supervisors to commit to closing Men's Central Jail by March 2025 without a replacement jail," said Ambrose Brooks S. with the Justice LA Coalition.

The Board of Supervisors is reviewing some plans on what to do with the old jail, including closing it altogether. If it's shut down, they're also looking at ways to replace it.