County Jail System
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department operates the largest jail system in the United States. The Los Angeles County Jail provides short-term incarceration services for all of the County (including cities like Los Angeles, Glendale, Burbank, and Long Beach which have their own police departments). The Men's Central Jail (MCJ) and Twin Towers Correctional Facility (TTCF) are located in a dense cluster northeast of Union Station that is next to the station's rail yard. The North County Correctional Facility (NCCF) is the largest of the four jail facilities located at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, California. The other facilities are East Facility, North Facility, and South Facility.
Some of the newer contract cities like Santa Clarita and West Hollywood have never had police departments. When their city governments were founded, they took over what was formerly unincorporated land, but then contracted their police responsibilities right back to the county sheriff. Since the department already had substations in those areas anyway, the result was to maintain the status quo.
In contrast, Compton, California, used to have a police department, but in 2000, the city council voted to dismantle the troubled police department and become a contract city. Compton has been at times notorious for gang violence, especially during its recent history.
Read more about this topic: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)