By C1 Staff
LOS ANGELES – ACLU is pleased to see Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca agreeing to reforms aimed at improving the management and oversight of his agency amid allegations of brutality against inmates, despite that the organization has complained for years about the jail conditions.
The recommendations were based on interviews with current and former Sheriff’s Department officials, jailhouse witnesses, testimony from experts and internal department records, according to The LA Times.
Among the findings were that top supervisors joked about inmate abuse, encouraged deputies to push ethical boundaries and ignored alarming signs of problems with excessive force.
If all 63 of the reforms are implemented, there would be major implications for the deputies working the jails: punishment for dishonesty would be dismissal rather than suspension, and deputies would no longer have their use of forced investigated by their supervisors.
One of the key recommendations accepted is to create an independent inspector general’s office with the authority to scrutinize Baca’s agency.
This would strengthen civilian monitoring by giving the outside body power to conduct investigations inside the jails and elsewhere in the department.
Baca’s agreement to the reforms comes days after a panel blamed him for problems of excessive force in the county’s lockups.
“I couldn’t have written them better myself… We will be a stronger and safer jail,” Baca said at a news conference on the third floor of Men’s Central Jail, the site of some of the most troubling allegations.
But several of the inmates were not impressed by the announcement; those brought to fill the pews felt as though they were being used as props.
“It’s a dog and pony show,” said inmate Geoffrey Nielsen. “We’re here to be pranced out… People don’t deserve to get beat up for mouthing off.”