Appropriate Force Found in 16 Cases of County Jail Violence

The Orange County Grand Jury said in a report Monday that the Sheriff’s Department did not use excessive force in 16 jailhouse confrontations between inmates and deputies that had been called questionable in a previous jail study.

In a 17th incident, the grand jury said its information was insufficient to determine whether excessive force was used.

A consultant who prepared the report for the grand jury said, however, that his research was not extensive enough to be used as a legal basis for deciding whether the deputies’ conduct was proper.

The main purpose of the study was to determine whether the policies and training of the Sheriff’s Department are adequate for such situations, not to exonerate or find blame in those incidents, said the consultant, Thomas F. Lonergan, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department official who has been assigned by federal judges to monitor jail overcrowding in some counties.

Those Involved Not Interviewed

Neither he nor the grand jurors, themselves, interviewed the deputies and inmates involved in those incidents.

“This was done in the spirit that we find better ways to handle these situations,” Lonergan said.

But Richard P. Herman, an attorney with the county chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he believes that there is brutality in the jail and that he is disappointed that the grand jury study was not more comprehensive.

“They missed it again,” Herman said. “I think (the grand jury) would like to get to the bottom of this, but they have chosen the wrong way to find out what the truth is.”

In a separate grand jury study also released Monday, the Sheriff’s Department was found to have “one of the finest (training) programs in the state.”

However, the report did recommend that the department provide more training to make deputies aware of the cultural distinctions of county minorities, particularly Asian groups.

David Bunch, chairman of the grand jury’s public safety committee, said the findings in the report were discussed with the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Rivas said, however, that the department was not going to comment on the reports until it had reviewed the final copies.

Other Recommendations

In addition, the two studies recommended that:

- A jail supervisor be required to conduct immediate interviews of deputies and inmates involved in fights and to prepare a report within 24 hours.

- The department train deputies to be sensitive about ways to avoid confrontations. The report said the training should include role-playing.

- Deputies should be trained in a wider variety of physical-control techniques.

- The department should establish contact with a college so its training officers can be schooled in teaching techniques.

The reports were released as the 1987-88 county grand jury prepared to complete its term Thursday, when a new jury will be seated for another one-year term. During each term, the panel is required to conduct a study of the jails.

The report on the use of force in the jail was intended to follow a study conducted last spring by another outside consultant, who reviewed more than 1,000 fights in the main men’s jail during November and December, 1987, and January, 1988.

That consultant’s report said that excessive force by deputies was not a problem in Orange County Jail but that there were 17 incidents in which deputies might have responded with less severe measures.

After that, the grand jury hired Lonergan to review those 17 incidents. He plotted the circumstances of each incident on a graph, using measurements for the inmate’s provocation and the deputy’s response.

In 16 of the cases, the formula used by Lonergan deemed the deputy’s response to be “not excessive.”

But Lonergan said his study was not extensive enough to be used to exonerate deputies of wrongdoing. He said his intent was to determine only whether Sheriff’s Department policies or training are adequate.

He said his report was based solely on the reports of the incidents prepared by the deputies involved. To determine culpability, Lonergan said the study would also have had to include examinations of medical records and interviews with the deputies and inmates involved.

About deputy training on cultural aspects of minority groups, the grand jury said the present curriculum offered by the Sheriff’s Department is inadequate.

“While not a present critical need, it appears that a potential problem area exists, which could be readily met by course modifications,” the report said.