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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:06 pm
Time: 8:06 pm
Results for jail violence
1 results foundAuthor: County of Los Angeles. Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence Title: Report of the Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence Summary: There has been a persistent pattern of unreasonable force in the Los Angeles County jails that dates back many years. Notwithstanding a litany of reports and recommendations to address the problem of violence in the County jails issued by multiple bodies over more than two decades, it was only recently that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department ("LASD" or the "Department") began to implement changes that significantly reduced the level of force used by Deputy Sheriffs in the jails. Both the responsibility for, and the solutions to, the problem of excessive force in the County jails lies with the Department's leadership. Significantly, the Department failed to identify, monitor and address force problems until the Sheriff began to take action last year in the wake of a series of scathing reports, the glare of adverse publicity, actions by the County Board of Supervisors (the "Board") including creating the Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence (the "Commission" or "CCJV"), and a series of public hearings by both the Commission and the Board. As a result of the recent attention of the Sheriff and the reforms he instituted, the number of force incidents, and in particular Significant Force incidents, in the jails has dropped dramatically. Yet even with these recent reductions, troubling indicia of a force problem remain. Whether recent force reductions will be sustained over time when public attention recedes, and whether the entire Department is truly committed to the Sheriff's stated vision for the jails and the implementation of these reforms, remains to be seen. The Department provides a myriad of services and is a very complex organization with 17,000 sworn and non-sworn civilian employees. It patrols the unincorporated areas of one of the largest counties in the United States with a population of over 9.8 million, provides police services to over 40 cities in Los Angeles County plus unincorporated areas, operates the Los Angeles Regional Crime Laboratory, provides security for the courts throughout the County, and runs the largest jail system in the country. The jail system includes eight geographically distant facilities that house some of the most dangerous and violent inmates and rival gang members in the nation. In addition to operating the jails, the Department transports prisoners to and from the courts and runs the Custody facilities in the courts. The Los Angeles County jail system has been plagued by many problems over the years, from overcrowded and substandard jail conditions to allegations that deputies used excessive or unnecessary force on inmates and facilitated inmate on inmate violence. These problems have been the subject of numerous reports, starting with the Kolts Report in 1992, and detailed in periodic reports by Special Counsel Merrick Bobb and the Office of Independent Review ("OIR"). Last fall, the American Civil Liberties Union (the "ACLU") issued a scathing report entitled "Cruel and Unusual Punishment: How a Savage Gang of Deputies Control LA County Jails" detailing mounting concerns with violence in the jails. It was soon followed by a critical report from OIR, stating in no uncertain terms that "deputies sometimes use unnecessary force against inmates in the jails, to either exact punishment or to retaliate for something the inmate is perceived to have done" and expressed concern that "the times in which deputies 'get away' with using excessive force may be on the rise." At the same time, the Los Angeles Times published a series of articles recounting allegations of excessive force, a "code of silence" among Custody deputies, deputy misconduct in the jails, and the existence of an on-going federal criminal investigation into abuses in the jails. With a bright spotlight placed squarely on the Department and its jails, the Sheriff created a Commander Management Task Force ("CMTF" or the "Task Force") last fall to "[t]ransform the culture of our custody facilities into a safe and secure learning environment for staff and inmates, and provide a level of service and professionalism consistent with our Core Values." At the same time, the Board of Supervisors created this Commission with a mandate "to conduct a review of the nature, depth and cause of the problem of inappropriate deputy use of force in the jails, and to recommend corrective action as necessary."The Board also directed the Commission to "hold[] this Board and the Sheriff accountable for their speedy and effective implementation" of necessary reforms. Details: Los Angeles: The Commission, 2012. 205p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 26, 2015 at: http://www.lacounty.gov/files/CCJV-Report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.lacounty.gov/files/CCJV-Report.pdf Shelf Number: 129784 Keywords: Inmate MisconductInmate ViolenceJail InmatesJail ViolenceJailsPrison GangsPrisoner Maltreatment |