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Addressing Violence in Los Angeles’ Jails

January 2, 2013 | Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Lecturer, UCLA School of Public Affairs

Miriam Aroni Krinsky served as the Executive Director of Los Angeles County’s Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence. She is a lecturer at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, and a national policy consultant on youth violence prevention and juvenile justice issues. Ms. Krinsky has testified before national and state legislative, governmental, and judicial bodies; authored more than 50 articles; and lectured nationwide on criminal trial and appellate law, foster care, juvenile justice, and sentencing issues.

 

Miriam Aroni Krinsky served as the Executive Director of Los Angeles County’s Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence. She is a lecturer at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School, and a national policy consultant on youth violence prevention and juvenile justice issues. Ms. Krinsky has testified before national and state legislative, governmental, and judicial bodies; authored more than 50 articles; and lectured nationwide on criminal trial and appellate law, foster care, juvenile justice, and sentencing issues.

 

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
―Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

For too many years, Los Angeles County’s jails have been plagued by a “persistent pattern of unreasonable force” directed at incarcerated individuals — many of whom have yet to be convicted of any criminal offense. That troubling conclusion anchors a recent report issued by the Los Angeles Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence (“CCJV” or the “Commission”) — a group I had the privilege of serving this past year as Executive Director. 

The Commission was created by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in October 2011, in the wake of rising concerns regarding excessive use of force in County jails. Responding to troubling claims and “alleged breakdowns in the supervisory and disciplinary process through which Sheriff’s officials ensure the constitutional and ethical conduct of their work force,” L.A. Supervisors — with the support of Sheriff Lee Baca — created a Citizens’ Commission to “initiate and carry out a community-level review of alleged inappropriate use of force by deputies assigned to the jails.” 

The Commission included some of California’s most talented, respected, and experienced judicial, law enforcement, and community leaders. (Information on Commission members is available on the CCJV website.) Our work was propelled by thousands of hours of pro bono assistance from 45 lawyers in nine of Los Angeles’ most prominent law firms, under the leadership of our capable General Counsel Richard Drooyan.

The Commission’s mandate was 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 of Supervisors also charged the Commission with “restor[ing] public confidence in the constitutional operation of our jails.”

This was no easy undertaking. During a nine-month investigation, Commission staff interviewed more than 150 witnesses (including Sheriff’s Department personnel, experts from around the nation, jail watchdogs, clergy, inmates, and others) and reviewed in excess of 35,000 pages of documents. Commissioners had the opportunity to hear critical testimony from 30 witnesses in widely covered public hearings along with perspectives of interested community members in a May 2012 public forum. (Transcripts of the witness testimony and exhibits from Commission meetings are available on the CCJV website.)

Recognizing the importance of seeking insights from other systems, Commission staff interviewed use-of-force experts and high-ranking corrections leaders from around the nation and toured numerous jail facilities. That information helped us better understand corrections challenges, best practices, and strategies for turning around troubled systems.

Throughout the process, the Commission strived to ensure that its work was accessible and transparent. The CCJV website enabled interested individuals to access audios of past Commission meetings, learn about ongoing work, subscribe to updates, and transmit any jail violence-related concerns. Over an eight-month period, the website received nearly 36,000 visits. The Commission’s website remains in place as a living library of the Commission’s work.

The Commission’s 193-page final report (issued September 28, 2012) contains 63 recommendations based on 77 findings. It provides a thoughtful, fair, and thorough assessment of the nature and depth of use of excessive force by deputies in L.A. County jails, as well as a clear blueprint for reform. 

The Commission found a pattern of excessive use of force in County jails that has spanned a period of years and, even with the Sheriff’s recent positive engagement, has yet to be fully remediated. These problems resulted from a failure of leadership and a departmental structure with too many layers of bureaucracy and too many places where critical information was lost and accountability allowed to lapse. The Commission recommended significant changes in the leadership, personnel, and structure of the Custody division; enhanced disciplinary, use-of-force, and training procedures and policies; and renewed efforts to hold managers accountable for past failures.

While the problems recounted in the Commission’s report are not new, they are not insolvable. True solutions will require more than stopgap measures; they will require a commitment to significant, lasting, and profound systemic and cultural change. The Commission’s report has charted the path for reform, but it will be up to others to navigate that path. And it will be up to the watchful eye of the entire community to ensure that our “civilized” humanity and values are maintained — even behind our prisons’ closed walls.