Mothers turn grief into protest at Men’s Central Jail for Mother’s Day weekend

Los Angeles, CA — Not everyone will be celebrating Mother’s Day. This weekend, families who have lost loved ones to the jail system will hold a demonstration demanding the permanent closure of the Men’s Central Jail. 

Organized in partnership with the JusticeLA Coalition, system-impacted family members will host a rally on Saturday, May 10th at 3:30 p.m., and continue with a healing service on Sunday, May 11th at 10:30 a.m.

Men’s Central Jail is one of Los Angeles County’s oldest and most controversial detention centers. For years, formerly and currently incarcerated individuals have protested that there is abuse, neglect and mistreatment happening within the facility.

Now, dozens of grieving mothers are preparing to transform Mother’s Day into a public act of mourning and protest. 

The rally, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, will feature mothers whose children died while incarcerated in Los Angeles County jails and families who have lost loved ones in police custody. Community advocates will join as well. 

Dr. Terence Keel, a UCLA professor and director of the BioCritical Studies Lab, is expected to speak at the rally. Keel is also the Founding Director of The BioCritical Studies Lab and currently leads the In-Custody Death Project at UCLA, where a research team is documenting how the death investigation system in the U.S. is failing to tell us the truth about why so many Americans lose their lives in jail and during arrest.

Other speakers will include mothers who have lost their children in-custody, including the mother of Stanley Wilson Jr., a former Detroit Lions cornerback, who will speak about her son’s death. Wilson’s death was notably left off the Los Angeles Sheriff Department’s official in-custody death tracker, which some argue reflects broader patterns of erasure and institutional neglect.

According to JusticeLA, in-custody deaths in Los Angeles County have reached alarming levels, with more than one death per week reported in 2025 so far—a rate they say marks a 20-year high.

The weekend of action is part of a broader push by local advocates to shutter Men’s Central Jail, which critics have long condemned as overcrowded, unsafe, and structurally unsound. The jail, located at 441 Bauchet Street in downtown Los Angeles, has been the subject of numerous calls for closure from civil rights groups and county officials alike.

In 2021,  the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to decrease the number of people in custody by several thousand so that the county could eventually shutter the facility by 2023. Now, two years have passed since the deadline for closure, and community members are demanding answers.

For many, the failure of elected officials to fulfill their pledge to close Men’s Central Jail exposes a deeper, persistent bureaucratic dysfunction across Los Angeles County. Nevertheless, organizational advocates of system-impacted individuals continue to call upon the Board of Supervisors to invest in care-based programs and alternatives to incarceration. 

The rally and service are open to the public, with community members encouraged to bring flowers, photos, and messages in memory of loved ones lost to incarceration. 

Rally: May 10 at 3:30 p.m. | Mother’s Day Service: May 11 at 10:30 a.m.

441 Bauchet St, Los Angeles, CA 90012- Park area outside of Men’s Central Jail