LOS ANGELES — The inside of a prison cell is hauntingly familiar to 22-year-old Jared, known as King Jaybo.

“I once slept in one of these cells. It was cold,” Jaybo said.

He was locked up on his 17th birthday, after a troubled family life, homelessness, and hunger took him down the wrong path.

“Don’t have anybody to guide you. Don’t have anybody to support you. I turned to the streets to know what I know, how to do best and try to survive,” Jaybo said.

He would have easily ended up spending many years in prison, he said, had it not been for Youth Justice Coalition, a nonprofit that gave him community and support.

Jaybo is now the Freedom Arts Director for the nonprofit.

“Young people just like myself are criminalized every day for mistakes that they made,” he said. “They’re looked at as monsters, as murderers as so many things but all they needed was a way out.”

That’s why Jaybo is voting "yes" on Measure J.

Measure J would require Los Angeles County to designate no less than 10 percent of the county's general fund to community programs and alternatives to incarceration through job training, youth development, and housing aid.

“If we can provide some type of resources, some type of program, some type of department, I think it’s inevitable that this [is] going to save lives, save young people lives,” Jaybo said.

Not everyone agrees.

Lawanda Hawkins is the founder of an organization called Justice for Murdered Children. She started it in 1996 after her only son Reggie was murdered.

Hawkins said she believes locking the county into a charter amendment that would force them to spend at least 10 percent on supportive programs will end up diverting money away from the sheriffs and district attorney’s office.

“Me, being the mother of a murdered child, I support law enforcement,” she said. 

Measure J is clear. The money would come from the general fund. Hawkins said it is a fiscally irresponsible move that could have consequences on her community when coupled with possible 911 service cuts due to tax revenue shortfalls because of the pandemic.

“How many times have they told us about increasing our taxes and that was going to create programs in our community? Have we seen those yet? No!” she said. “Anytime that someone tells you that they’re going to tamper with public safety, we all need to be concerned.”

Jaybo said he is not concerned. He said he is elated because it is what they have been working for all along.

“Measure J, for me, is what we’ve been fighting for forever long,” Jaybo said. “We’ve been fighting for a youth development department for so long. We’ve been fighting for youth jobs for so long. We’ve been fighting for alternatives to incarceration for so long. I think it’s going to help so many different people.”