Los Angeles County will spend more than $2 billion to replace its aging downtown Men's Central Jail with a new facility that includes treatment for a growing number of medically and mentally ill inmates.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to fund the Consolidated Correctional Treatment Facility. It's expected to open in 2028.
Sheriff Jim McDowell calls the vote a "just and right move forward."
The Sheriff's Department says the current 1960s-era jail building has cramped and windowless cells, is falling apart and can't meet the current needs of inmates in the nation's largest jail system.
The Sheriff's Department says 70 percent of county jail inmates report a medical or mental illness and the system is struggling to meet court-ordered mandates to provide them with proper care.
