Deaths Spur Look at Inmate Labels

Although officials acknowledge that inmates who agree to testify in criminal cases risk retaliatory attacks, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department lacks a clear policy to identify witnesses in the county jails and ensure their safety.

Rather than identify certain inmates as witnesses, jail officials simply label them as “keep-away” inmates when they enter the system.

Those who are identified as keep-aways are separated from the people they are testifying against. They are not, however, isolated in the jails as protected witnesses. Nor are they kept away from the friends or associates of the people they are testifying against.

Even if a judge has ordered a witness protected, those classified as keep-aways typically are housed in cells holding multiple inmates, and many might walk unescorted to the medical clinic, visiting area or attorney rooms. Because of that, witnesses and the inmates from whom they are being protected can cross paths.

In the wake of five jail slayings and other assaults in the last seven months, several inquiries are underway into the security of the jails run by Sheriff Lee Baca. The adequacy of the inmate classification system, particularly for witnesses, is likely to be a central focus.

Sheriff’s officials say there is no way to know about everyone who may pose a threat to an inmate witness.

“That’s where a lot of problems come in,” said Sheriff’s Chief Chuck Jackson. “We don’t know who today’s enemy and tomorrow’s friend is. It only takes one day for someone to turn against you.”

Keep-aways are housed in separate areas and transported separately from the people they are testifying against, Jackson said. But, he conceded, the witnesses and their targets occasionally end up on the same bus or in the same holding cell at the courthouse. Breakdowns can also occur when there are security lapses, or when deputies do not follow procedures.

The ultimate security is confinement in one-person cells, prosecutors and defense attorneys say. But when a judge issues an order for jailers to protect an inmate, often that doesn’t mean he will be kept in such a cell. Jackson said there simply were not enough single cells.

Occasionally, witnesses are completely segregated from other inmates, if there are verifiable threats against them or if they have been attacked in the jail. Those inmates are kept in single cells, escorted wherever they go and isolated in the jail, in courthouse lockups and on buses.

“We take what I consider extreme precautions in those cases,” Jackson said.

High-profile defendants and celebrities, some prison gang members and inmates who are extremely violent are also separated from the general population and placed in individual cells.

The Sheriff’s Department has a detailed system of classification for inmates. The system directs where they are housed and how they are transported. For example, there are separate classifications for inmates who are gay, suicidal, condemned and jail informants. Inmates’ classifications are noted in a computer system and identified by the color of their wristbands or uniforms.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green said he does not tell the Sheriff’s Department exactly how to protect witnesses.

“I just care that the people be protected” to ensure their safety and so they feel safe in testifying truthfully, said Green, assistant supervising criminal judge.

“Is it a complex system? Yes. Is it more than just keeping A away from B? Yes.” Green said. “No system is perfect ... but we’re going to have to be pretty close to perfect.”

Prosecutors cannot guarantee the security of their witnesses in the jail, said Janet S. Moore, director of specialized prosecutions for the district attorney’s office.

“All you do is promise to try to keep them safe,” she said. “It’s very clear to the public that we’re not 100% successful.”

Prosecutors in the hard-core gang division often offer their witnesses complete segregation in the county jail system, but the witnesses sometimes refuse that level of protection because they believe it makes them even more of a target. The flow of information in the jails is so continuous, Moore said, that it is easy for inmates to learn who is cooperating with prosecutors.

“All it takes is for that person to be identified as a snitch against a gang member,” she said, “and they become a target for all gang members, and for anyone who has a criminal code of ethics that snitches need to be dealt with.”

Providing escorts or housing inmates in single cells can help cut down on problems, Moore said, but the lack of resources, staffing and space make those options impractical.

Baca is engaged in a public dispute with prosecutors over funding levels for his department. He has said money is so tight that he can’t afford to keep people convicted of minor crimes incarcerated for more than one-tenth the length of sentences judges have ordered.

Chief Deputy Public Defender Robert Kalunian said there should be a separate classification for protected witnesses.

He agreed that the only way to ensure that witnesses were completely protected was to place them in solitary confinement. But Kalunian said he didn’t know whether that was feasible.

“It’s a difficult problem,” he said. “Absent a tremendous amount of resources, I don’t know that there is a foolproof solution.”

Witnesses in danger could be housed in other jails in Los Angeles, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has suggested.

Cooley said he would appoint a task force of community leaders to investigate the jail deaths. The task force will work with prosecutors, including Moore, to review reports regarding slayings in County Jail during the past year and to evaluate the circumstances of those deaths. The members will also assess whether there has been a backlash of witnesses reluctant to testify.

In the case of alleged murderer Santiago Pineda, Raul Tinajero was given immunity and ordered to testify for the prosecution. He told his mother that he feared for his life. And despite the judge’s order that “the witness is to be protected in this matter,” Pineda allegedly stalked and killed him.

National Sheriffs’ Assn. jail specialist Mike Jackson said inmate witnesses should be placed in complete protective custody in jails.

Their movement should be scheduled so they do not eat with or otherwise interact with the general jail population. Deputies should watch them carefully, escort them and house them in a separate area of the jail -- or in a separate jail facility.

“It’s more manpower-intensive,” Jackson said. “It’s not foolproof, but it works most of the time.”

Otherwise, there are too many risks. “Your life is in danger if you turn state’s evidence,” he said.

“You’re a snitch, and that is about the worst thing you can be in jail.”