LOS ANGELES – Today, George Gascón’s campaign for District Attorney released a policy paper proposing major reforms to Los Angeles County’s approach to behavioral health and its nexus to homelessness. Such reforms would ensure LA’s approach is trauma-informed and evidence-based.
“The current District Attorney’s approach to those experiencing mental illness and substance abuse challenges has severely backfired and has exacerbated LA’s homelessness crisis,” said former District Attorney and Assistant Chief of the LAPD, George Gascón. “The traditional law and order approach relies on the false premise that punishment somehow treats the illness that is addiction. Our response has been emotional when we needed to be clinical, as incarcerating those with behavioral health challenges is not only inhumane, it does nothing to ‘fix’ deeper public health problems such as substance abuse or mental healthdisorders which are frequent drivers of contact with the criminal justice system. You can’t cure cancer with a hammer, just like you can’t treat mental illness with a concrete box.”
Gascón pledges to work with other elected leaders, providers along the Continuum of Care, community groups and others to address the region’s behavioral health crisis. These policies and guidelines were drafted with assistance from Gascón’s policy committee. The issues covered are many, but the proposed policies and guidelines recommended include:
- Enacting policies to prevent homelessness and keep people in their homes by intervening before families are forced to leave their existing homes.
- Diverting individuals from the earliest contact with law enforcement by dramatically expanding Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD).
- Establishing a system of Behavioral Health Justice Centers as an alternative to traditional criminal justice interventions.
- Expand the Los Angeles County Homeless Court Program and more fully integrate the District Attorney’s Office in a leadership role in the program.
- Establishing a Homelessness Advisory Board.
- Implement a CONNECTion To Services Program (the CONNECT Program), that support diversion to services and prioritize alternatives to enforcement, citation, or arrest for low-level quality of life crimes or life-sustaining activities.
- Adequately train attorneys on the American Bar Association Criminal Justice and Mental Health Standards.
Click here to read the full report.
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George Gascón grew up in Los Angeles after his family immigrated from Cuba. An army veteran, Gascón served as a Los Angeles Police Department Officer for 30 years, rising to the rank of Assistant Chief of Operations. In 2006 he became Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona, where he stood up to the hateful and anti-immigrant policies of then Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In 2009, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Gascón Chief of Police. Newsom turned to Gascón again in 2011 when he tapped him to be District Attorney to fill the seat vacated by an outoing Kamala Harris who had been elected Attorney General. During his tenure Gascón implemented reforms that are being duplicated across the country while overseeing violent crime and homicides drop to rates not seen in 50 years. After being elected to two terms, Gascón returned to Los Angeles to care for his elderly mother and to be closer to his two daughters and grandchildren in Long Beach. Gascón is married to Fabiola Kramsky, a three-time Emmy Award winning journalist and recipient of the “Premio Nacional de Periodismo,” the highest recognition given to journalists in Mexico.