Warren Olney’s Which Way LA? is looking at the next step in the jails mess at 7 pm on Wednesday night as Warren interviews Sheriff Lee Baca, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and the ACLU’s Legal Director Peter Eliasberg.
It has been a target rich string of days since the Sheriff was on the show last week (with Eliasberg and me), giving Warren plenty of fodder for interview questions:
Since that time, the Sheriff met with the LA Times editorial board and said he knew nothing about how bad the jails were, that no one told him, that they kept the info from him, and he was shocked, I tell you, shocked—a perspective that many found incredible, in the truest sense of that word.
Then the LA County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to create their independent Citizens’ Commission to look into and analyze the abuse accusations and the entire jails culture.
AND before that, the Times learned that the Feds, who were already looking into a number of alleged incidents of abuse, were widening their probe considerably and now appeared to be looking at the whole kit-‘n’-caboodle for patterns of abuse throughout the jail system.
Oh, yeah, and there was also the unusually searing report from Michael Gennaco’s Office of Independent Review, in which Gennaco outlined a dozen incidents of abuse that resulted in 30 plus firings or disciplinary measures, but added that, due to sloppy investigations and a code of silence, lots of deputies were getting away with excessive uses of force, and that the number of those “getting away” with this kind of abusive behavior, appeared to him to be on the rise.
So there was a lot potentially to talk about.
As expected, the broadcast was lively.
Zev said that “this is not going to go away.”
Baca sounded much less thrown for a loop than he did on the previous show. However, he admitted that, so far, he’s not demoted or moved any of the people who supposedly didn’t inform him about abuse. But he said he has now put in four special people who “bypass the chain of command” to get him information. Whatever that means.
Peter Eliasberg was much gentler with the Sheriff than on the last show, appropriately, but still brought the hard facts back into play.
Zev Yaroslavsky too refused to play down the reports of abuse. “There’s the issue of the culture,” he said. “There’s the matter of how that culture was able to develop.” Yaroslavsky attempted to address the Sheriff’s better angels when he said that Baca was uniquely qualified to lead reform. Nevertheless, he did not let Baca off the hotseat. “I think we’ve got the right guy to do this” Zev said, “but he’s going to have to bring the ponies home. He’s going to have to see it through.”
Back to Baca who said, “Force is the big issue. But changing the culture means that you have to treat the inmates with dignity and respect.” He said he wants to let people out of jail in better shape than they went in.—which is important, of course. And he means it. But first deputies need to stop assaulting the people in their care. (Small but salient point.)
All in all it was good radio. So listen. You can find the podcast here.