Department of Justice Jim McDonnell LA County Jail LASD

Far-Reaching DOJ Settlement With LA County Sheriff’s Department to Trigger Major Jail Reform



The long-expected settlement between the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
and the U.S. Department of Justice was officially announced Wednesday morning at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in downtown LA.

The settlement concerns the failure to provide a safe, appropriately monitored, non-abusive environment, including “adequate mental health services,” for the mentally ill in the LA County’s long-troubled jails. It is the culmination of two DOJ investigations that span what is now nearly two decades of scrutiny of LA’s county lock-ups, starting in June 1996, “to determine whether the conditions in the jails violated the constitutional rights of its prisoners.”

Now, 19 years later, those investigations have resulted in a lawsuit that was filed in federal court, also on Wednesday, in which the DOJ alleges that indeed the County of Los Angeles “deprived” inmates in its jails of “rights, privileges or immunities” protected by the Constitution of the United States.”

Wednesday’s settlement is an agreement in lieu of the feds’ legal complaint going forward. The agreement required a stamp of approval by the LA County Board of Supervisors, who did the requisite stamping in a closed door meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a statement she hopes the settlement helps the county avoid “protracted litigation” and “provides a blueprint for durable reform.”

For the most part, however the tone at the press conference was cooperative and non-adversarial. For instance, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Kappelhoff made a point of reaching out to deputies and others working in the jails, whom he thanked as “dedicated professionals…. who are in the front lines at the jails every day. Their efforts are critical to the long-term success of this agreement…”


SO WHAT EXACTLY IS IN THE SETTLEMENT?

The agreement spells out in detail the series of marks that the department needs to hit within the next year, if it wants to stay out of legal hot water. It includes sections on new “scenario-based” training for LASD staff, suicide risk procedures, appropriate data gathering, the use of restraints, use of force and more. The settlement also delves deeply into what kind of review procedures should kick in within the department, if and when things go wrong—in other words, if there is a suicide, attempted self harm, or a “critical incident.”

As to how the settlement actually works: if the department fails to hit the agreed upon marks specified, the federal judge in charge of the settlement can step in and institute penalties—i.e. the oversight period can be extended. The department’s progress will be overseen most closely by an independent monitor, who will also have the help of a small team of “content experts.”

Attorney Richard Drooyan was named as the monitor. As a former head of the Los Angeles police commission, a former chief assistant U.S. attorney and—most relevantly—the general counsel for the Citizen’s Commission for Jail Violence—Drooyan is considered to be an excellent choice. Plus, due to their time spent together on the CCJV, he is someone with whom Sheriff McDonnell already has a good and established relationship.


THE SHERIFF PICKS UP THE TOOL

The sheriff seems genuinely to welcome the agreement, which he described a “…comprehensive approach to reform” that he and the department’s custody leadership “fully embrace.”

McDonnell also rightly sees the 60-page document as a useful tool that—as he told radio host Warren Olney Wednesday on KCRW’s Which Way LA?—will give him the needed leverage “to get the resources necessary,” to accomplish long lasting reform.

When asked about the personnel training that the settlement requires, McDonnell quickly gave what he said was a representative example of why it was badly needed. “We teach deputies in the academy to be assertive, to raise your voice where appropriate…” but, he said, “if you do that with someone with autism, that is exactly the wrong thing to do, it sets someone off” and you end up in a confrontation that could have been avoided.

In a letter sent to department members, McDonnell was similarly upbeat about the potential positive effects of the deal with the feds, describing the agreement as an opportunity.

Even prior to the agreement, he wrote, the department had already been able to use requirements contained in the coming settlement to make needed changes and put in place additional resources—with, of course, the fiscal support of the board of supervisors. Those changes included:


· 500 additional LASD personnel
. Over 160 additional DMH personnel
· Multiple jail modifications to reduce suicide risks
· More frequent safety checks
· Additional cleaning crews
· Increased training opportunities for interaction with the mentally ill
· Enhanced inmate assessments and additional treatment
· Drug treatment and community re-entry planning
· Additional out of cell therapy and recreation time

“You are part of an historic time for the LASD,” McDonnell wrote, “and this agreement will establish us as being on the leading edge of modern correctional systems. While I have always said I welcome outside eyes on the Department, this will continue to be a collaborative process, and one that we will accomplish together, as a team.”


THE BAD OLD DAYS

So, if things have improved, how how bad were they before?

Actually, really bad—at least in certain quarters.

As recently as four years ago, the LA Times reported the story about a young deputy, an “honor recruit” who was a standout at the academy, was allegedly forced to beat up a mentally ill inmate, then to participate in a cover up. According to the LA Times’ Robert Faturechi, the deputy, Joshua Sather, “said that shortly before the inmate’s beating his supervisor said, ‘We’re gonna go in and teach this guy a lesson,” according to the records.” The attack, according to Sather, was then covered up.”

By the way, reportedly no one was disciplined over the whole mess.

Many of the worst examples of the kind of conduct that brought on the law suit and the settlement have to do with the mishandling and/or neglect of suicidal inmates, too often resulting in tragic and unnecessary inmate deaths, such as the death of 22-year-old John Horton, whose suicide in Men’s Central Jail we wrote about in 2009.

And, although the DOJ admits that there has been much laudable reform, there are more recent incidents, like the circumstances last month that led the sheriff to relieve 10 department members of duty after learning that an inmate who had displayed “suicidal ideation,” and was believed to have other mental problems, had reportedly been in some kind of restraints for 32 hours without being fed or given more than a cup of water, after head-butting or pushing a female deputy causing her to sustain a concussion.


IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE MENTALLY ILL

The settlement also makes it very clear that, while most of the reforms it requires have to do with the treatment of the mentally ill, the DOJ is equally concerned with the treatment—or more properly mistreatment—of inmates in general, such as the abuse of a jail visitor that resulted in the recent conviction of three former department members, and the plea deals for two others.

In that regard, the settlement points to the ACLU’s massive class action lawsuit, Rosas v. Baca, that was settled earlier this year, known as the Rosas agreement.

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2012, alleged that then Sheriff Lee Baca and his top staff condoned a long-standing and widespread pattern of violence and abuse by deputies of inmates in the county’s jails. The suit was brought in the name of Alex Rosas and Jonathan Goodwin who, according to the complaint, “were savagely beaten and threatened with violence by deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.” Rosas and Goodwin were only two of the dozens of inmates whose reported abuse was described in the complaint.

The Rosas settlement, like the DOJ settlement, resulted in a roadmap for reform, complete with required goals, the accomplishment of which, is to be overseen by three independent monitors, and enforced by a federal judge who can find the department in contempt.

Wednesday’s DOJ settlement repeatedly mentions the Rosas agreement, suggesting that it is filling in what Rosas didn’t cover: “…this Agreement addresses remaining allegations concerning suicide prevention and mental health care at the Jails…”

Peter Eliasberg, the Southern California ACLU’s legal director, and the prime mover behind Rosas, was very heartened by the DOJ settlement. “For far too long, the County Board of Supervisors turned a blind eye to evidence of savage abuse by deputies and failure to provide even minimally adequate treatment to inmates with mental illness, even after presented with 2008 and 2010 ACLU reports that specifically outlined many of the same problems this agreement seeks to fix.” This oversight, he said, along with the Rosas agreement…”will finally bring much needed change to the nation’s largest jail system.”

At the press conference, McDonnell expressed similar sentiments, but understandibly gave them a slightly more buoyant spin. “This is our collective opportunity,” he said, “to be on the leading edge of reform and to serve as a model for the nation.”

We genuinely hope so.

29 Comments

  • I think the Feds wrote McD’s speech for him.

    The elected official that wasn’t.

    “I am not running, but now that Mr. Fox approves; I am in it to win it.” Be careful who you are your bedfellows.

  • Although it is a laudable goal to be on the leading edge of reform, only in some parallel universe would a CEO retain the same leadership team that bankrupted the company in the first place.

    Why would anyone reward failure and expect positive change to come from it?

  • So who is going to protect our deputies from these criminals, oh I mean patients, nope Clients that is right A/S Big Red wants us to call them Clients. Sheriff McDonnell says, “We teach deputies in the academy to be assertive, to raise your voice where appropriate…” but, he said, “if you do that with someone with autism, that is exactly the wrong thing to do, it sets someone off” and you end up in a confrontation that could have been avoided”. Don’t worry Sheriff we already know you get days off for yelling at an inmate. OMG you might hurt their feelings.

    You say we should treat inmates with respect in your letter countywide. But the inmates don’t respect us and attack us unprovoked then lay on the floor like ‘Kings X you can’t touch me’. Sheriff did you know this passive restraint Recalcitrant policy is now in the patrol field. Trainees are trying to get on the radio to call for a Sergeant for a citizen who is not follow orders. God forbid one of our young trainees doesn’t get seriously injured or killed with this passive policy from custody. It will be on everybody at the highest levels for letting this policy continue.

  • LATBG is so right! Back in 1996, then Sheriff Sherman Block assembled a task force and team to orchestrate the transfer of the mentally ill inmate population from MCJ to TTCF in response to the USDOJ’s threat of seeking Federal court ordered control of the LACO jail system’s mentally ill inmate housing operation. As with this week’s announced settlement, 1996 agreements to improve service to and housing of the mental observation inmates was announced. Improved suicide prevention procedures, increased periodic checks of MO housing, commitments to improve the MO intake screening form and procedures, increasing and modifying training of the LASD intake nurses and doctors, developing and implementing training for deputies and C/A’s working MO housing positions, decreasing the deputy/inmate ratio in MO housing (staffing increases), as well as forging agreements with DMH to improve training for their psychiatrists, psychologists and psych-social workers was presented. This week’s announcement sounds like a carbon-copy of 1996’s proposed program! What difference will a 2015 version of the 1996 script make? Nothing, unless the managers are changed. You can add all the wah-zoo training, suicide prevention outfits and increased staffing but none of it will amount to any meaningful improvement unless fresh, NON-Tanaka promoted command staff and middle managers are in charge.

  • Bla Bla Bla keep giving custody all the money while the rest of the Department goes without. Patrol is driving crummy cars, understaffed and over worked while custody deps can’t get off a chair and make a check let alone feed somebody. Technology continues to blow by the largest Sheriff’s Department in the world, but wait lets buy cameras and put them in every corner in custody, because we cant trust anybody. And yes No. 2 you are right, I am now starting to belive that the change is never coming, and those that drove us here are still driving the car, they just changed the guy in the passenger seat.

  • Okay, the dust has finlay settled (CCJV, Rosas, DOJ, ACLU, etc.) and everyone has excised their pound of flesh from LASD. The Sheriff’s Department has begun to initiate the recommendations made by all these parties to insure the inmates are treated humanely, fairly and their rights protected. Aside from the fact these inmates have commited crimes, broken the law and violated the rights of law abiding members of society. The resounding message has been sent to the departments personnel (collateral damage)…. “don’t enforce the law’rules or you will be disciplined or fired.” Even though these inmates might “punch you, kick you, spit on you, throw urine or fecal matter on you…you must not violate their rights….at all cost.” They are incontrol….the important ones….you are a “professional”…you knew the danges of the job when you took it….you are a robot that must take the abuse..not react as a human being and just move on. It is a shame that people who violate the laws of our land are treated with such kid gloves. Jail is no longer a deterent for many but just a place to come and get their services (medical, dental, social security benefits, room and board, etc.). The ACLU and many anti-law enforcement groups can be thanked for setting the agenda and driving this country down the path of destruction. A country without laws will suffer….a country tht does not support those who endeavor to enforce those laws will ultimately fail. Sad times.

  • When the public along with John Q citizen saw the Deputy vs.Deputy mentality that was so prevalent within the Sheriff’s Department, why is there any boo hoo’s, bitches and complaints when compliance is ordered by the Feds. I won’t go down the worn out list, however when any person or entity can’t clean up their mess and wipe their own ass, then they can’t complain. It is a helluva price to pay for the B.S. that ran rampant through this department. The ones who have to suffer the repercussions, will be the new deputies. It’s time for self examination and being true to thyself. It’s a big pill to swallow, but thanks to division and strife which maxed out during the last regime, the latest renditions of change is the procedural payout. Give LASD 5 thru 10 years to normalize.

  • #5 for nearly a decade the resources went to patrol or my specifically to reg 2 and certain specialized units favored by Paul. Child abuse starved while Major Crimes fed at trough. Patrol ran at a 2 to 3 percent vacancy rate while the Courts and Homeland Security were in double digits. Some units CARPed once a week, while other favored by Paul, not at all. Buddy Goldman and Dave Waters enforced Paul’s budget edicts and custody ran short.

    We ignored our oath of enforcing all laws, specifically our Constitutional obligations in custody and are now paying the price. People like Goldman, Tyler, Hellmold, Barrantes were all in place at one time or another during that decade to influence where we spent our treasury, and did nothing. Either to busy pandering to Paul or to afraid to take him on.

  • Back in my day, these “clients” were kept in check, “right shoulder on the wall” and all that what not. Glad I’m not in there any more. Well, time for my shift, and guess what, that’s right, I’ll be doing the lord’s work with my sleeves rolled up, ink showing, chewing my favorite tobacco product. Don’t like it, come and git me!!!!!!!!

  • How come some custody facilities now need two captains. Won’t they be stepping on each other’s toes. Not only do they get a 2nd captain, with this, comes a staff that I’m wondering what they will be doing. How about doing something really simple like assigning personnel and holding them accountable for the job they do. Oversight, accountability, ethics and earning your pay. The department is promoting more buracracy while some bureaus go without management for the longest time.

  • Get out while you can. Oh wait. Not until you get your 2% raise from the County, that doesn’t give a SHIT about you.

  • What needs to happen is simple. The LASD needs to get rid of all of these cry babies…starting with most of the commenters on this page…..

    Beotches…..

  • Handicapper: Child abuse is still starving, no captain, no leadership, no supervision cause they are rarely there, it’s going to hell.

  • @ #12.. Lol, so true. Every agency is getting raises, while the Sheriff’s Department has to beg to even get a meeting with the County Board. But hey, I guess we can all just max out on overtime while waiting for that 3, 3, and 3% raise…

  • AT #12 & #15 A strong contingency of deputies should first address leadership, in the department and in their union. This is no secret.

    A raise neither a listening ear is available or even considered until deputies make their demands known.

    Good luck with that. You can’t blame anyone but yourselves.

  • Two captains at basin facilities, what a pathetic indictment of the Sheriff’s inability to control all of the Tanaka misfits he has surrounded himself with starting with the 8th Floor. That’s right Sheriff, I said you have surrounded yourself with Tanaka’s boys, BUT now you own it. You kept them because you don’t have the balls to deal with them. So now your answer is to instill your LAPD bureaucracy mentality by doubling up on captains? Oh, don’t provide appropriate staffing levels for line management and line supervision and then HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE! Oh no, political window dressing just like hatching your additional Chief to make an LAPD Chief of Staff position because you can’t trust your XO, your Assistant Sheriffs and Chiefs. Hell, you might as well promote Guyovich while you’re at it. She was Tanaka’s Chief of Staff, XO and a few other things. I think you mean well Sheriff McDonnell, but you are so screwing up by the numbers and the Tanaka clones you own, enable and continue to promote are doing all the screwing for you while they talk their game.

  • @ SUREFIRE: Ironic how you seem to know every time a cop is killed by a black suspect (any suspect are all the same) but you failed mention the shooting in Hayward California last month by a Mexican suspect. I know….selective memory. Your actions supercede your rants. Typical.

  • No matter the color, so many killed by police would be alive today if they just submitted to the arrest and legally protest later. I’m not justifying execution without due process, but just don’t resist! Stay alive – don’t resist.

  • @ Shake my head. I’ve been gone a long time, but some things don’t change. It is very easy to dictate from on high. I agree with everything you say. I also submit that EVERY manager and executive spend a month , yea , a month working inside MCJ as a line grunt. No consideration given for their rank… that gets left at the door. Just sayin’

  • @They say: Yup two Captains at each jail facility and yet the “worker bees” can’t get a decent raise. No respect.

  • Some of the issues that plague society stem from a lack of responsibility and accountability. Parents: It started in your homes! You set the tone and foundation for all the adults who only care about themselves, don’t feel they have to respect authority (you neither), yeild to authority and developed their value system from using social media and watching reality TV. You instilled an inflated sense of self work, equality and individuality that is going to plague organizations and society for years to come. Many of you complain about the generation that doesn’t respect anyone, anything or any of the institutions we used to revere but you created this monster. Good Job!

  • Things on this dept will never change. Let’s keep promoting unqualified individuals who ruin their units with lack of leadership. When those affected finally speak up these captains move on to an ever better command and mess that up too!!!

  • […] What is especially notable  is that the report cited incidents as late as the fall of 2014, such as Nina’s suicide attempt and her apparently abusive care at Twin Towers. All this occurred after LASD and DMH officials disputed a June 2014 DOJ letter to the county saying the jail system’s  handling of mentally ill inmates was an unconstitutional violation of their rights. These agency leaders, on the other hand, claimed they were making great progress, challenged the Justice Department’s harsh findings and opposed the court oversight that was ultimately imposed in August 2015 on the jail system as part of a sweeping settlement. […]

  • […] What is especially notable  is that the report cited incidents as late as the fall of 2014, such as Nina’s suicide attempt and her apparently abusive care at Twin Towers. All this occurred after LASD and DMH officials disputed a June 2014 DOJ letter to the county saying the jail system’s  handling of mentally ill inmates was an unconstitutional violation of their rights. These agency leaders, on the other hand, claimed they were making great progress, challenged the Justice Department’s harsh findings and opposed the court oversight that was ultimately imposed in August 2015 on the jail system as part of a sweeping settlement. […]

  • […] What is especially notable is that the report cited incidents as late as the fall of 2014, such as Nina’s suicide attempt and her apparently abusive care at Twin Towers. All this occurred after LASD and DMH officials disputed a June 2014 DOJ letter to the county saying the jail system’s  handling of mentally ill inmates was an unconstitutional violation of their rights. These agency leaders, on the other hand, claimed they were making great progress, challenged the Justice Department’s harsh findings and opposed the court oversight that was ultimately imposed in August 2015 on the jail system as part of a sweeping settlement. […]

  • […] What is especially notable  is that the report cited incidents as late as the fall of 2014, such as Nina’s suicide attempt and her apparently abusive care at Twin Towers. All this occurred after LASD and DMH officials disputed a June 2014 DOJ letter to the county saying the jail system’s  handling of mentally ill inmates was an unconstitutional violation of their rights. These agency leaders, on the other hand, claimed they were making great progress, challenged the Justice Department’s harsh findings and opposed the court oversight that was ultimately imposed in August 2015 on the jail system as part of a sweeping settlement. […]

  • […] What is especially notable  is that the report cited incidents as late as the fall of 2014, such as Nina’s suicide attempt and her apparently abusive care at Twin Towers. All this occurred after LASD and DMH officials disputed a June 2014 DOJ letter to the county saying the jail system’s  handling of mentally ill inmates was an unconstitutional violation of their rights. These agency leaders, on the other hand, claimed they were making great progress, challenged the Justice Department’s harsh findings and opposed the court oversight that was ultimately imposed in August 2015 on the jail system as part of a sweeping settlement. […]

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