Cinema News: OUT NOW: a gripping new hospital investigation

Dear Reader,

I'm writing today to thank you for reading the L.A. Times, and to tell you about some of the work your readership makes possible.

At the Los Angeles Times, we take seriously our responsibility to examine our leaders and institutions, cover them fairly and hold them to account.

In recent years, our reporters have uncovered the dark side of California's move to legalize marijuana, failures in the Cal State University system to investigate sexual harassment claims, the abuse of overtime pay by LAUSD workers, how hundreds of abused children in L.A. County wound up in local hotels and how a pension plan the state funded for boxers has failed the very people it was supposed to help. Those are just a few of the dozens of stories we've reported that have led to change in our community.

Today, we're publishing a new investigation. Ben Poston and Emily Alpert Reyes report on the extremely high use of restraints on psychiatric patients at L.A. General Medical Center, the public facility that serves the region's poorest and most vulnerable residents.

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Investigative journalism of this kind makes our community stronger, providing rigorous attention to — and demanding accountability from — the institutions that shape our lives.

It also takes time and resources to produce. Our reporters must spend months carefully cultivating sources and combing through records, and then writing stories that illuminate the truth with context and clarity. Along the way, they work with photographers, editors, lawyers and designers to bring the stories to you.

This would not be possible without your support. Thank you for checking out our new story. And for helping us do what we do.