Joey Febre

Los Angeles is a county of contradictions. It contains some of the most advanced clinical institutions in the nation, yet it continues to allow untreated mental illness and addiction to overwhelm its streets, courts, and correctional facilities. It has world-class researchers, policymakers, and public-safety professionals, yet the systems built to translate their knowledge into action remain fragmented and politically sluggish. The Strong Solutions Roundtable was created as a direct response...

Los Angeles is facing a defining moment in its struggle to reconcile mental health, substance abuse, and public safety. Every day, the county sees the consequences of a system that was never designed for the realities it is now expected to manage. Deputies are dispatched to psychiatric crises they are not trained to treat. Emergency departments cycle individuals through rapid stabilization only to discharge them back onto the streets within hours. Courts move people with severe...

Los Angeles stands at a pivotal moment in its history, a moment defined not by a single crisis but by the intersection of several. Rising concerns about violent crime, the proliferation of fentanyl and synthetic drugs, unprecedented levels of untreated mental illness, homelessness at scale, and a justice system straining under decades of political neglect have created an atmosphere of uncertainty throughout the county. Public safety is no longer a conversation confined to policing. It extends...