In Monday, special counsel to the LA County Board of Supervisors, Merrick Bobb, issued his semi-annual report in which he found that complaints in the department were being handled appallingly slowly, and that reform in the jails, while showing some heartening progress, still had a long way to go.

Yet Bobb’s strongest theme was his clear expression that reform in the department depends greatly on Sheriff Baca’s leadership, and the sheriff’s willingness to stop ceding crucial control to others.

For instance, Bobb writes:

“To some extent, any LASD Sheriff is the public face of the Department and has to concentrate efforts on its external relations. The Sheriff perforce must delegate to trusted lieutenants. But it should be a delegation of authority, not an abdication of it. And the Sheriff must be certain that those who act in his name do so in a manner consistent with the Sheriff’s own core values… “

Here are a few more highlights from the 70-page report:

RUINING THE JAILS

“Two things seem clear: the Sheriff was not well served by major executives and managers who both actively and passively permitted the jails to operate at variance with the Sheriff’s core values, seemingly believing that the abusive culture there was intractable, at best, or not really a problem, at worst. Senior executives did not keep Sheriff Baca well-informed or else sheltered him from persons in his management seeking to alert him to the serious problems in the jails.

The Sheriff has taken some steps to chastise some of the individuals who let him down. There are signs that there has been a change of attitude on the part of some, which is welcome and bodes well for the Department. Nonetheless, it will take a sustained period of genuine progress to convince knowledgeable observers that those same major executives who presided over the apparent collapse of accountability in the jails are capable of presiding over jail reform.

THE DEPARTMENT’S INVESTIGATIVE BUREAUS MUST REPORT DIRECTLY TO THE SHERIFF

There has been concern expressed about a possible lack of support and respect for the Internal Affairs at the senior executive level. [This is, we presume, from WLA's reporting here.] The importance of the Leadership and Training Division has eclipsed in recent years and needs now once again to be front and center. The Chief of that division, which contains IAB, reports directly to the Sheriff, a recent change that we endorse. ICIB—the criminal investigations arm of the LASD—currently is a direct report to the Sheriff, according to the Undersheriff. The secrecy of ICIB investigations apparently has been compromised in the past, so there is a value in keeping layers of reporting to a minimum. In our review, as a matter of policy and best practice, both IAB and ICIB should report directly to the Sheriff. The power to initiate and terminate investigations and hence to make or break careers is one that requires oversight at the highest level. Direct reporting allows the chief executive to personally keep his finger on the pulse of the organization.

LASD’S NEW USE OF FORCE POLICY IN JAILS WOULD DISCOURAGE THE SLAMMING OF INMATE’S HEADS INTO HARD OBJECTS

There’s a lot more, like the rundown on the progress being made—and not made—in installing the video cameras in the jails, along with charts that show the degree to which use-of-force numbers have dropped since all the scrutiny of the jails began last year.

There is a short section on the importance of the recommendations about pre-trial release made in the Vera and the James Austin reports, if jail population is to be kept at a manageable level.

Plus there are things like this on a newly proposed use of force policy:

Among other things, the current reformulation attempts to subject a wider variety of head injuries to an immediate rollout by Internal Affairs. It should serve to discourage deputies from causing an inmate to strike his head against any hard object, be it the concrete floor or the bars in the jail. Should a deputy deliberately do any of those things, it may be a crime and should be dealt with as such. We believe it also should include instances where it might not have been done deliberately but was done recklessly, as when the deputy knows the high probability of what he is doing will cause a head strike, yet goes ahead anyway. Reckless conduct may also be criminal….

Okay, well, that’s encouraging, I guess. One would have assumed that such matters would have already been clear. But better late than never, one supposes.

JAILS TASK FORCE DOING WELL SO FAR

Bobb makes a point of praising the Commander Management Task Force or CMTF, whose job it is to “….assess and transform the culture of the custody facilities in order to provide a safe, secure learning environment for our Department personnel and the inmates placed in the Department’s care…”

Admittedly, WitnessLA was among those who were very concerned at the make-up of the CMTF because all but one of its five commanders were Undersheriff Paul Tanaka’s hand picked people.

While acknowledging the concern, Bobb says “the group is doing a good job so far,” and gives various examples of their competence, adding, “It is a positive step that they are reporting directly to the Sheriff.”

Merrick Bobb sums his assessment of the CMTF in this way, which also capsulizes much of what the report says when taken altogether:

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this month, the LA County Supervisors passed a motion authored by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas that asked the county’s Probation Department to come up with some ideas as to how Probation might improve the way it was handling the more than 5000 newly-released inmates that had been handed to LA County Probation for oversight as part of the new realignment strategy mandated by AB109.

One of the purposes of realignment—in addition to saving the state money— is to rethink the idea of prisoner reentry so that those released receive appropriate rehabilitative services to aid them in succeeding on the outside, rather than simply returning to prison. This means they were supposed to be enrolled in services such as mental health and substance abuse counseling, housing referrals and job training, and other programs of that nature.

Yet, according to reports, LA’s Probation Department has thus far had a dismal record for actually getting the mandated services to those newly-released former prisoners who need them. In fact, since February, probation had reportedly only referred 60% of the former inmates that passed through its doors to services, of which only 15% actually have received treatment.

It was also noted that the Probation Department’s intake “HUBs” to which a newly released prisoner must first report, weren’t properly equipped to refer clients to many of the services necessary to begin with.

Since appropriate reentry programs and services have been shown to greatly improve an individual’s chance to avoid the revolving door back to lock-up, the supervisors moved to direct Probation to come up with some solutions for the various problems outlined, and a goal-laden plan for bringing those solutions to fruition. Plus to help matters along, the motion provided a few suggested methods that Probation might explore.

Probation’s response to the supervisors’ request was posted on Tuesday night, and it isn’t particularly heartening.

It mostly consists a list of reasons why nearly everything the supes asked them to do “isn’t feasible”—-with few if any creative counter-solutions offered.

You can take a look for yourself here.

More on this as we have a chance to analyze it further.

NOTE: AN INMATE AT TWIN TOWERS JAIL DIED AFTER RECEIVING MEDICAL TREATMENT ON TUESDAY

The LA Times’ Robert Lopez posted the story Tuesday night. Details are sketchy. Presumably we’ll know more soon.

it slipped my mind that today was Cesar Chavez Day. So since many are taking the day off (and, yes, many of us aren’t), the promised Part 2 of Aero Bureau will appear Monday, not today.

In the meantime, watch the hour-long PBS video on the Farm Worker’s Movement at the end of the post ( It reminded me about, among other things, all those years that no one I knew would have dreamed of eating table grapes. Even after the strike was over, it took a long time to learn to like them again. I imagine I was far from alone in that somewhat irrational post-strike reaction.)

POLICE UNION VERY UNHAPPY THAT SOME DEPARTMENT INSIDER LEAKED TO THE LA TIMES THE NAME OF THE OFFICER INVESTIGATED FOR RACIAL PROFILING

New LAPPL prez Tyler Izen wrote LAPD Inspector General Alexander Bustamante a strongly worded letter asking for an investigation into the matter.

“…the unlawful disclosure of the confidential information regarding any officer by unscrupulous self-serving individuals has reached a level of indecency so great that we will not stand by and remain silent,” he wrote.

(The full text is here.)

And, to remind you what we’re talking about, here’s an opening clip from Joel Rubin’s LA Times article.

A white police officer has been targeting Latino drivers for traffic stops because of their ethnicity, a Los Angeles Police Department investigation concluded — marking the first time the department has found that one of its officers had engaged in racial or ethnic profiling.

For decades, the question of profiling — “biased policing,” in LAPD vernacular — has bedeviled the department. Accusations that the practice was commonplace throughout the 1970s and ’80s alienated the LAPD from the city’s minority neighborhoods. And, despite dramatic reforms that have boosted the department’s image in recent years, complaints of profiling have persisted, with hundreds of officers being accused of bias each year. Until now, none of those complaints has been substantiated.

.

Of course, at least the LAPD’s probable Peace Officer Bill of Rights violator wasn’t a department captain who, in a fit of pique, blurted the existence of an IAB investigation against an LASD sergeant formerly under the captain’s command, all this in front of a very full and public board of supervisors meeting. Making matters worse, the captain failed to include in his blurt (that had a wild-eyed county attorney looking to be on the verge physically tackling him) the information that the charge had already been resolved in the sergeant’s favor—but instead inaccurately implied the exact opposite.

FBI SAYS IT DIDN’T REALLY MEAN THAT “SUSPEND THE LAW” THINGY IT HAD IN ITS COUNTER-TERRORISM BOOKLET

Wired Magazine’s Danger Room section has the not-terribly-cheering story. Here’s a clip:

The FBI once taught its agents that they can “bend or suspend the law” as they wiretap suspects. But the bureau says it didn’t really mean it, and has now removed the document from its counterterrorism training curriculum, calling it an “imprecise” instruction. Which is a good thing, national security attorneys say, because the FBI’s contention that it can twist the law in pursuit of suspected terrorists is just wrong.

“Dismissing this statement as ‘imprecise’ is a rather unsatisfying response given the very precise lines Congress and the courts have repeatedly drawn between what is and is not permissible, even in counterterrorism cases, over the past decade,” Steve Vladeck, a national-security law professor at American University, says. “It might technically be true that the FBI has certain authorities when conducting counterterrorism investigations that the Constitution otherwise forbids, but that’s good only so far as it goes.”

The reference to law-bending was noted in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller from Sen. Richard Durbin that Danger Room obtained. When Danger Room asked for the original document, the FBI initially declined. On Wednesday, a Bureau spokesperson relented, but refused to say who prepared the document; how long it was in circulation; and how many FBI agents, analysts and officials received its instruction….

IN NEW YORK CITY A CIVILIAN OVERSIGHT BOARD GETS THE POWER TO PROSECUTE NYPD OFFICERS FOR MISCONDUCT

“Lawyers for the independent agency that investigates allegations of police abuse in New York have been given wide new powers to prosecute officers in misconduct cases under an agreement city officials reached on Tuesday,” writes Al Baker for the NY Times.

This is something that could be very useful to consider in LA. It involves both civilians and police officers.

REMEMBERING THE FIERCE AND GIFTED ADRIENNE RICH, AND THE FABULOUS EARL SCRUGGS

The New York Daily News has an unusually good send off for the enormously influential feminist poet, Adrienne Rich, who died this week.

And in this video from the PBS Newshour Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown help us say goodbye to both Rich and Earl Scruggs, who also died this week.

“He made you stop in your tracks,” said Bela Fleck of the brilliant and beloved banjo innovator Scruggs.

Yep. That he did.

And here he is doing it again— with those he inspired.

And now back to Cesar Chavez.

JAILS COMMISSION MEETS TO HEAR TESTIMONY FROM INDEPENDENT MONITOR AND SPECIAL COUNSEL

The Citizens Commission on Jail Violence will meet at 10 a.m. on Friday, where they’ll hear reports and testimony from Michael Gennaco, Office of Independent Review and Merrick Bobb, Special Counsel.

The Commission has a website that will tell you all its goings on. So, if you’re interested in observing the meetings from the beginning, check here and then com’on down. This is the first meeting where there will be real testimony as opposed to mostly set-up.

STATE LEGISLATORS MEET ON FRIDAY AT 2:30 PM TO HEAR TESTIMONY ABOUT HOW TO HELP YOUNG MEN OF COLOR THRIVE

Research shows that young men of color have the lowest life expectancy rates, highest unemployment rates and lowest graduation rates of any population in LA

With this in mind, an impressive list of local leaders, experts and youth will share “innovative health, education and juvenile justice models for possible statewide expansion” at a legislative hearing from 2:30 pm to 6 pm, Friday at the : Expo Center, 3980 Bill Robertson Lane, Los Angeles.

For additional information and to register (it’s free) go here.

NOTE; DUE TO MY OWN CRAZY MEETING SCHEDULE THESE PAST TWO DAYS, THIS IS A LIGHT BLOGGING DAY. Lots more Monday.

The special Jail Violence Commission ordered by the LA County Board of Supervisors has added its final two members—one of whom, in particular, is a very heartening choice.

One of the two, Robert Bonner, is a former federal judge, a former prosecutor, and even a former DEA administrator. This brings the total number of former jurists on the 7-person panel, to four. Added to that there is Cecil “Chip” Murray, the well-liked former pastor of the First AME Church, and Long Beach Chief of Police, Jim McDonnell, the former Assistant Chief of the LAPD and someone who was short-listed for the chief’s job after Bill Bratton left.

Thank heaven for McDonnell.

The former judges—Lourdes Bairde, Carlos Moreno, and Dickran Tevrizian–while impressively august and no doubt extremely bright and discerning, have exactly zero experience between the four of them in the ins and outs of dealing with custody facilities, or the running of a law enforcement agency.

McDonnell, fortunately, while he’s not worked in the LA county jails, has spent his life in law enforcement.

The other piece of good news is commission member number seven, Alex Busansky, who is right now the president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. But most significantly, in the recent past he worked for the Vera institute where he was the Executive Director of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons. So he knows Jails and prisons, their functions and policies—and what they look like when they’re running well—and he knows a lot about the LA County Jail.

(And he is a former prosecutor.)

The original five commissioners chose the last two. So bravo to them for the selection of Busansky.

It’s a good omen.

But, see here’s the thing: This commission has no legal power, meaning its only power to affect change will simply be the force, accuracy and clarity of its investigation, analysis and recommendations, which can in turn affect public opinion. The pressure of public opinion, together with the the existing federal investigation—which may (or may not) result in a federal consent decree—is the one combination of elements that has the possibility of producing the desperately needed reform in the jails, and in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department as a whole.

So, will these seven have the will and insight necessary to take on such an aggressive investigation? Or will they simply tinker around the edges?—making more suggestions of the ilk of forbidding deputies to wear steel-toed boots when working custody, and asking for more timely completions of force reports in the jails—all suggestions that, while worthy, only address the symptoms.

The selection of Busansky offers at least the hope that the seven might—-just might—be planning to take a swing at making a real difference.

Fingers crossed.

GOOD NEWS, OBAMA ISSUES FIRST COMMUTATION OF HIS PRESIDENCY. BAD NEWS: WHAT TOOK HIM SO LONG? AND WHY JUST ONE?

Late Monday, the President pardoned five people and issued one commutation.

This is all very nice, of course. But many of us who follow such things wonder why he has only pardoned a grand total of 22 people (plus that single commutation) while by the same time in his presidency, Jack Kennedy had pardoned or commuted the sentences of 600 Americans. Why, people ask, has Obama has has left such an important presidential power lying nearly fallow?

Julie Stewart, the President, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is one of those who thinks Obama could have done a lot more by now. She writes for the Huffington Post. Here’s how her column begins:

This week, President Barack Obama won’t just be pardoning turkeys. He decided to throw some human beings in the mix, too. He pardoned five people, restoring their civil rights, and even issued his first presidential commutation to Eugenia Jennings, reducing her sentence so that she can return home to Missouri to recover from cancer and watch her daughter graduate high school.

Her commutation is long overdue.

In 2001, Jennings was a survivor of domestic abuse and had a long-standing struggle with drug addiction. She began selling small quantities of crack cocaine to support herself and her three children. When she sold a mere 13.9 grams of crack cocaine to a police informant, Jennings received a 22-year sentence. No guns were involved; no one was hurt.

Jennings spent her decade in federal prison conquering her addiction, educating herself, and speaking publicly to students, warning them of the consequences of drug use. Earlier this year, Jennings was diagnosed with cancer. She has received chemotherapy treatments in prison and shows positive signs of an eventual recovery.

Jennings’s commutation is no fluke — her pro bono legal team from the Washington, D.C. firm of Crowell & Moring built a wide network of supporters and advocates, including Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). Sen. Durbin first learned about Eugenia’s outrageous sentence when her brother, Cedric Parker, testified before Congress. Sen. Durbin and Jennings’s lawyers fought tirelessly for her release for three years.

Unfortunately, the use of the pardon power has become seen as such political anathema that this kind of herculean effort — and lengthy wait — is what it takes to get justice. It wasn’t always this way. President Obama has now been in office as long as President John F. Kennedy, but Kennedy granted over 600 pardons and commutations during that time. President Obama has granted 22 pardons and one single commutation…..

9TH CIRCUIT RULES THAT YELLOWSTONE GRIZ MUST STAY ON THREATENED LIST FOR NOW

In 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted Endangered Species Act protections from the grizzlies scattered through Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.—contending that they were a recovery success story. However, US District Judge Donald Malloy granted summary judgment that vacated the feds’ delisting plans at least for the 500 or so bears in the Greater Yellowstone area. A three judge panel ruling for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, concurring with advocates who said that the Fish and Wildlife folks had not adequately guarded against changes in circumstances that could once again reduce the bears’ numbers.

Reuters has more.

The LA Times also has a good story on the griz issue.

PS: Since I spend some time in West Glacier, MT, every summer, an area that like greater Yellowstone is grizzly central, I’ve observed bear management up close for nearly 30 years. It’s a delicate matter. I’ve also been able to observe my share of grizzlies of various sizes, ages and genders, over those same years. It’s a privilege I treasure. Thus I’m personally deeply grateful to the three judges of the 9th Circuit panel, and also to Judge Malloy before them, for erring on the side of caution when it comes to protecting the great bear.

BILL BRATTON ET AL HIRED TO INVESTIGATE UC DAVIS PEPPER SPRAYING DEBACLE

Does the UC System really need former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton and his New York-based Kroll security consulting firm in order to aggressively investigate the insanely shocking pepper spraying at UC Davis? Uh, no, it’s a bit of overspray.…uh overkill.

On the other hand, one could also argue that it’s a great PR move designed to communicate that UC President Mark G. Yudof is taking this really, really, really seriously.

Which is good.

As long as the price Bill and group charge isn’t too high.

Larry Gordon of the LA Times has more.

NO $1.4 BILLION TO BUILD AND RENOVATE JAILS UNTIL SHERIFF BACA GETS HIS EXISTING HOUSE IN ORDER, SAYS THE LA TIMES

Good call, Times editorial board! (This is, by the way, the second good jails-related editorial from the Times in the last few days. There was also this on Tuesday.)

Here’re a couple of clips from Wednesday’s editorial on the matter:

In the coming weeks, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to decide whether to approve a $1.4-billion jail construction project that would help ease overcrowding at Men’s Central Jail and prevent the early release of some inmates. The county’s chief executive and Sheriff Lee Baca argue that the plan, which calls for rebuilding one facility and expanding a second, would make the nation’s largest jail system safer and cheaper to operate.

It’s hard to argue with the need or the logic. The Men’s Central building is so dilapidated and so overcrowded that in 2006, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson described conditions as “not consistent with human values.” Renovations would make it safer for deputies as well as for inmates. What is questionable, however, is whether Baca should be given new or refurbished jails when he’s so clearly struggling to run the ones he has.

[BIG SNIP]

Yes, the county’s jails need help, and Men’s Central needs to be replaced. But the Sheriff’s Department should demonstrate that it can properly operate the jails already under its control before it asks taxpayers to spend another $1.4 billion.

Don Knabe has broken with the prevailing trend and, instead of nominating an august and respected former judge as his pick for the LA County Supe’s Jail Violence Commission—-Knabe picked a guy with his own badge and a gun.

Here’s how it happened: it seems that Knabe turned to Long Beach Chief of Police Jim McDonnell to help him vet candidates that he might consider nominating as his pick for the newly forming Commission.

McDonnell who, before his Long Beach gig, was the Assistant Chief of Police right under Bill Bratton (and was on the short list to become LAPD Chief when Bratton left) is highly respected by law enforcement types around So Cal. Plus he was awarded the Medal of Valor in his LAPD days, is the immediate past president of the California Peace Office Association, and knows everybody. In addition, he’s smart: He used to teach a class at UCLA’s school of public policy, and lectures about law enforcement issues all around the world.

So, yeah, you might say he knows the relevant territory.

Alright, so, anyway, there’s the Supervisor talking to McDonnell when all at once Knabe has a DUH! moment.

“Why not nominate the guy in front of me whom I trust so much?” Knabe reportedly asked himself.

And so he did. Knabe asked McDonnell if he’d be willing, the Chief said he’d be honored, and that was that.

I know from my own conversations with Jim McDonnell over the years that he’s someone with zero patience for cops/deputies or anybody else who is sworn to uphold the law, who instead uses his or her badge to abuse others.

Good choice, Supervisor Knabe.

It’s not officially official yet, but deals have been made, hands have been shaken, last minute contractual stumbling blocks have been shoved off the road ahead. Barring any force majeure, Jerry Powers, the Probation Chief for Stanislaus County will take over LA County’s very troubled and very large Department of Probation.

The official approval by the Board of Supervisors of Powers’ appointment plus his salary and extras is slated to take place next Tuesday, Oct 25. But offers have been unofficially made and accepted.

County CEO William Fujioka has recommended that the board approve a salary for Powers of $255,000 per year, with $25 grand to help with the relocation of his family.

Powers is expected to start work on December 5.

The Board members seem pleased. Powers is thought of as a very solid guy.

The rest of us look forward to welcoming the nearly-appointed new Probation Chief, and wish him all possible luck. Given the challenges the beleaguered agency still faces, he will likely need it.

(Link to CEO’s memo here.)

UPDATE:

Garett Therolf of the LA Times reports that the $255,000 per year salary for Jerry Powers that the board is expected to approve on Tuesday is $28,000 higher than what Donald Blevins was making.

Photo by BRIAN RAMSAY, Modesto Bee

The proposed 5-person Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence will be voted on by the LA County Supervisors today, Tuesday, and it looks as if the motion—proposed by Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas—will likely gather the necessary three votes to pass.

Other than Yaroslavsky and Ridley-Thomas, none of the other Supes has officially committed to a YES vote. But when I spoke to Zev over the weekend he said that he believed the necessary vote had been there on Friday, but that the other Supervisors could have drifted away by Tuesday.

Only Supervisor Gloria Molina has been public about her opposition to the Commission. Molina had her own motion for jails reform that will also be considered on Tuesday.

On Monday, however, Mike Antonovich put out a press release saying that if a commission was indeed created he already knew whom he would appoint. (The way the motion is constructed now, each Supervisor is allowed to appoint one of the five commissioners.)

Michael D. Antonovich will appoint retired Federal Judge Dickran Tevrizian to the “Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence” when the Board of Supervisors considers establishing the commission at tomorrow’s Board meeting. The proposed commission will review the allegations involving the use of force by deputies in the jails and recommend corrective action.

The LA Times took Antonovich’s press release as a strong indication that he would indeed be voting YES (a logical conclusion), but an Antonovich spokesperson insisted that the Supervisor was still making up his mind.

I’m with the Times reporters. I think it’s a done deal.

But we’ll see.

[Very light blogging this morning, more later today.]

Two important things having to do with the LA County Jails abuse scandal and with Sheriff Lee Baca happened over the weekend.

THE WIDENING OF THE FEDERAL INVESTIGATION:

It is now clear that the FBI’s probe of the abuse of jail inmates by Sheriff’s deputies is much wider than simply an investigation into several alleged incidents of abuse, as it appeared to be in the beginning.

According to an LA Times story by Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard, the Feds have subpoenaed use of force records of all deputies who have worked in the jail since 2009.

“I was caught completely flabbergasted,” Sheriff Lee Baca said of the growing federal scrutiny of his jail system, the nation’s largest. “It’s like your best friend digs up your favorite rose bed.”

[Okay, weird image, but whatever.]

This means that the Feds are no longer engaged in a “few bad apples” kind of probe. Instead, it is all but certain that the FBI is looking at the whole landscape—going back years—to determine if there is a widespread culture of abuse at the jails—as the ACLU, WitnessLA and others are claiming.

This is a big, big step forward.

SHERIFF BACA MEETS WITH TIMES’ EDITORIAL BOARD AND SAYS HE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT JAILS ABUSE

Sheriff Lee Baca made a rather astonishing set of statements when he met with the LA Times to talk about the ever widening abuse scandal in the LA County Jails.

For the most part his answers to questions about the growing list of reports of deputies abusing jail inmates appeared to boil down to the contention that he really, really didn’t have any idea this sort of thing was going on, that his command staff hid it from him.

Here’s a clip from the Times’ story:

In a searing self-critique, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca acknowledged that he was out of touch about problems in his jails and had failed to implement important reforms that could have minimized deputy brutality against inmates.

Faced with an FBI investigation into the jail system and mounting criticism over his handling of the crisis, Baca said in a long interview with The Times that his command staff has at times left him in the dark about the jails’ woes.

“I wasn’t ignoring the jails. I just didn’t know,” Baca said. “People can say, ‘What the hell kind of leader is that?’ The truth is I should’ve known. So now I do know.”

It is good, I suppose, that the Sheriff is no longer fighting the idea the idea that there is an abuse problem, as he did as recently as the end of last month.

But this claim that he knew nothing and then blaming his subordinates is….a little hard to take.

I’ll have additional news on these and other aspects of jail abuse scandal as the week wears on.

MEANWHILE IN OTHER NEWS…

NY TIMES CALLS ON CONGRESS TO RENEW FUNDING FOR SECOND CHANCE ACT

California can save $233 million in the first year alone if we cut our prison recidivism by 10 percent reports the NY Times in their editorial on why the Second Chance Act must be funded. Here’s the opening:

With state prison costs driven mainly by recidivism, the federal government must do all it can to support programs like the Second Chance Act, which guides newly released prisoners to drug treatment, mental health care, housing and jobs to keep them from going right back to jail. The House, which supports continued funding, must hold fast against a Senate appropriations bill that would zero out this important program.

Of about 700,000 people released from prisons this year, more than two-thirds will be re-arrested and more than half returned to prison within three years. Even modest reductions in recidivism could yield huge savings. For example, a study released earlier this year by the Pew Charitable Trusts estimated that Texas could save $33.6 million, New York $42 million and California $233 million in the first year alone if they cut recidivism by even 10 percent. The Second Chance Act, signed into law by George W. Bush in 2008, supports re-entry services for newly released prisoners, who typically land on the street without money, skills or a place to live. The program was initially authorized at $165 million. But Congress funded it at only $25 million for fiscal 2009, $100 million for 2010 and $83 million this year.

CALIFORNIA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION SAYS IT’S TIME TO LEGALIZE POT

Slate has the story. Here’s a clip:

The California Medical Association says it’s time to legalize it.

The state’s largest doctor group questioned the medical value of marijuana but says it’s time for it to be legal and regulated like alcohol and tobacco, reports the Los Angeles Times. The group’s spokeswoman claims it is the first major medical association in the country to call for the drug’s legalization.

“CMA may be the first organization of its kind to take this position, but we won’t be the last. This was a carefully considered, deliberative decision made exclusively on medical and scientific grounds,” said Dr. James T. Hay, CMA President-Elect in a news release. “As physicians, we need to have a better understanding about the benefits and risks of medicinal cannabis so that we can provide the best care possible to our patients.”