Monitor to Study Jail’s Problems From the Inside

A civil rights attorney has moved into County Jail to monitor security and help determine who is responsible for the deadly assaults that have claimed five lives in the last seven months.

Speaking from his office on the seventh floor of the Men’s Central Jail, Rob Miller said Tuesday that he would observe the jail’s daily activities. He also will have access to sheriff’s deputies, attorneys, chaplains and members of inmates’ families.

“We’re stepping up our level of scrutiny on this particular aspect of the Sheriff’s Department’s business and at this particular location,” Miller said. “There is just no substitute for proximity.”

He said he intended to learn as much as he could about individual cases and possible systemic failures.

Miller was sent by Michael Gennaco, a former federal prosecutor who heads the Office of Independent Review, a civilian oversight agency created by the Board of Supervisors in 2001 to monitor the Sheriff’s Department and to ensure that allegations of employee misconduct were investigated thoroughly.

“We can also do a lot of things to prevent potential problems,” Gennaco said. “Wandering the halls and even going to the bathroom can give you a better sense of what is going on.”

Meanwhile, Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who participated in a recent jailhouse tour, sent Sheriff Lee Baca a letter questioning the lack of protection for witnesses and suggesting that some of the most violent offenders be moved to the newer Twin Towers jail.

Gennaco also announced Tuesday that his staff would respond to homicides, suicides and serious attacks within county jails. His lawyers went to a county jail facility in Castaic on Saturday after an inmate was severely beaten by four fellow detainees.

The office will review internal memos and death reports and evaluate detention conditions, Gennaco said.

Such enhanced oversight in county jails across California is unusual but not unheard of, said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. But Barankin said it sounded as if more was needed than just sending in a civil rights monitor.

“Obviously the problems that seem to be affecting the Los Angeles County jails go way beyond civil rights problems and deal with effective monitoring and protecting the safety of inmates,” he said.

The Board of Supervisors and Baca support the opening of the watchdog agency’s satellite office, Gennaco said. Miller’s office, on loan from the medical services division, is not far from where inmates representing themselves in criminal cases are housed.

Miller, who plans to spend about two-thirds of his time at the jail, said he would occasionally work outside of traditional business hours. On Tuesday he arrived at 5 a.m. to observe the daily ritual of organizing hundreds of inmates for court appearances throughout the county.

Miller said he was not at the jail as a hall monitor or an investigator, but to ensure that the Sheriff’s Department conducted its investigations thoroughly, effectively and fairly.

“Being a little closer, digging in a little deeper into the custody world, is something we’ve talked about for quite a while,” he said. “It’s a natural evolution for us.”

The goal is to be embedded in the jail, he said, and to develop a broad base of sources. He plans to evaluate the process of deputies checking on inmates, the system of classifying inmates, the selection of inmate trusties and the investigations into violent incidents.

Miller said his office was monitoring the Sheriff’s Department for the long haul and did not expect to declare victory over the security problems within the next few months. But he hopes to have some recommendations for reform and to continue the work of the Office of Independent Review.

Miller, who graduated from UCLA Law School, spent 15 years in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, prosecuting more than 70 cases ranging from murder to environmental crimes to kidnapping. In October 2001, he joined the Office of Independent Review, where he is one of six attorneys.

In his letter, Antonovich questioned the sheriff’s practice of classifying inmates who are witnesses as “keep-aways.” The system, he said, fails to provide adequate protection and does not make a distinction between keeping two crime partners apart and separating a witness from the inmate he is testifying against.