A vigil outside the Men’s Central Jail to honor its inmates and advocate for its closure is among the events planned for Sunday in Los Angeles County to mark Father’s Day.
The vigil will run from noon to 3 p.m. and include prayers from different faith traditions, “trauma healing activities” including meditation and Reiki, a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation administered by laying on hands, and comments from relatives of inmates at the jail.
Vigil organizers support closure of the jail and consideration of “alternative solutions” because of the deaths of inmates and misconduct by sheriff’s deputies working there.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has long sought a solution to replace Men’s Central Jail, which was built in 1963.
The board voted in 2021 to create the Jail Closure Implementation Team to focus on closing the jail, according to the motion by Supervisor Hilda Solis and then-Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.
The vigil is being organized by Dignity and Power Now, which bills itself as a “Los Angeles based grassroots organization founded in 2012 that fights for the dignity and power of all incarcerated people, their families, and communities”; the Essie Justice Group, a South Pasadena-based nonprofit organization “of women with incarcerated loved ones taking on the rampant injustices created by mass incarceration,” and Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, a statewide organization that defends “the humanity of the immigrant and fight for the rights of the incarcerated.”
A Father’s Day Remembrance Service will be held at 10 a.m. at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Culver City. It will feature an original story by Jay Koplowitz and include music, song, prayer and reflection “as we celebrate and honor their legacies from generation to generation,” according to Rafael Ochoa, the park’s general manager.
The service will be led by Rabbi Brian Schuldenfrei, the senior rabbi of Adat Ari El, which bills itself as a historic progressive Conservative congregation in Valley Village, with Cantor Lonee Frailich of Temple Akiba of Culver City, a Reform congregation, and Cantor Emeritus Jay Frailich of the Reform congregation Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the father of Lonee Frailich.
The service will be streamed at hillsidememorial.org/fathers-day.
In-person attendees are invited to share their stories and memories following the service at a session led by psychotherapist Maggi Scharf.
As it has since 1996, Major League Baseball will dedicate Father’s Day to the fight against prostate cancer. In all of Sunday’s games, including the Dodgers-Kansas City Royals game at Dodger Stadium, all on-field personnel will wear specially designed blue-themed caps and blue ribbon decals.
A matching pair of blue socks is optional for every player.
The blue ribbon will also appear on the bases at each stadium and the official dugout lineup cards. MLB will direct 100% of its royalties from on-field Father’s Day socks and caps to MLB Charities, a nonprofit organization that will then donate those funds to the Prostate Cancer Foundation to support its mission in the fight against prostate cancer.
Sunday’s games will mark the conclusion of the Home Run Challenge where each home run since May 22 has raised money to fight prostate cancer, thanks to pledges made by fans tied to the number of home runs hit during the period.
Dodger players’ fathers and children will participate in the ceremonial first pitch and the fathers will make the “It’s time for Dodger baseball” announcement.
In his Father’s Day proclamation, President Joe Biden said, “Every Father’s Day, we pay tribute to the fathers and father figures in our lives who shower us with unconditional love and support. These men shape our character, help us reach our full potential and believe in us so that we can believe in ourselves.”
Father’s Day began when Sonora Smart Dodd wanted to honor her father, William Jackson Smart, a single parent who raised six children in Spokane, Washington. She initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of his death.
However, when that date would not provide organizers with enough time to make arrangements, the first Father’s Day was celebrated in 1910 in Spokane on the third Sunday in June.
In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended Father’s Day be a national holiday. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Father’s Day as a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday in June, while President Richard Nixon signed a bill into law to do so in 1972.