Many inmates who die in Los Angeles County jails have been behind bars for weeks or months before their deaths, according to a new UCLA study.
The study, published July 28 in PLOS One, looked at 509 jail deaths from 2008 through 2023 and over 1.4 million bookings.
The median time between arrest and death was 57.5 days; 4.1% of deaths happened within one day of arrest, and 16.7% occurred within one week.
The median time before an acute substance-related death was 63 days. That’s just over two months. That finding challenges the idea that most jail overdose deaths come from drugs taken shortly before an arrest.
“People are dying of overdoses, not from substances they imbibed around the time of arrest, but from drugs they had access to in jail,” UCLA environmental scientist Nicholas Shapiro said.
Acute substance-related deaths made up 4% of all jail deaths in 2008 and nearly 26.5% in 2023. After adjusting for age, the study found the risk of dying from a drug overdose or withdrawal was 49% higher in the jail population than in California overall.
About 70% of those who died were being held before trial. They had not been convicted of the charges keeping them in jail.
The findings follow repeated problems with Los Angeles County’s medication-assisted treatment program. The program uses medications like buprenorphine to reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings.
Los Angeles County spends roughly $25 million a year on the program. Between 2,350 and 2,650 people received treatment on a given day last year, CalMatters reported.
Still, the waitlist grew from 363 people in September 2025 to 835 by the end of October. The average wait was 25 days. County officials blamed budget and staffing problems.
The county received an additional $8 million in opioid settlement money last fiscal year. Health officials said the money paid for medications across the jail system, including drugs used to treat substance use disorders. Yet, the treatment program’s funding remained the same as the county shifted an equal amount of other funding to other priorities.
In a December 2025 letter, the California Coalition of Alcohol and Drug Associations asked county supervisors to end the waitlist and make sure people can continue treatment when they enter or leave jail.
“Every overdose behind bars is preventable, and every one is a policy failure,” CAADPE Executive Director Robb Layne said.
The county says the formal waitlist is gone.
“There has not been a waitlist for months,” LA Health Services told the Los Angeles Times in June.
A county Office of Inspector General report called monthly buprenorphine injections the best treatment method in a jail setting. Unlike daily oral medication, inmates cannot trade injections inside a jail. Administering them also requires less staff time.
Los Angeles County jail deaths remain high. The Sheriff’s Department dashboard lists 25 deaths through Aug. 12. One was a confirmed fentanyl overdose in April. Many recent causes remain pending.
The Board of Supervisors approved a plan in March calling for more staff searches, increased access to naloxone, better safety checks and quarterly reviews of the treatment program.
The UCLA researchers also recommended expanding addiction treatment, improving medical care, stopping drugs from entering the jails, and reducing the time people spend in pretrial detention.
