Reports Give Rare Glimpse at Jail Deputies’ Use of Force

One morning last December, in the booking section of Orange County Jail, a man who had been arrested after a hit-and-run accident began shouting angrily while he was being fingerprinted.

One of the sheriff’s deputies who operate the jail grabbed the man’s shoulder from behind and spun him around. “I asked him if he had a problem,” the deputy later wrote in his report.

“Yeah, I have a (expletive) problem,” the man responded, waving his arm about.

The deputy quickly applied a “rear wristlock”--forcing the man’s left arm behind his back and up toward his shoulders. “I also put my left arm around his neck in a carotid hold position, without applying pressure,” the deputy wrote.

In about 10 seconds, the man went limp in the deputy’s arms and fell to the floor, apparently unconscious.

That brief explosion of violence was one of 17 incidents in County Jail that consultant Lawrence G. Grossman described as a “possible excessive use of force” in a study submitted to the county earlier this year. Already, that study has led to some changes in policy and procedures at the jail.

Under the California Public Records Act, The Times recently obtained copies of the reports written by the deputies involved in the incidents singled out by Grossman, with all names deleted because of privacy considerations raised by the Sheriff’s Department.

The reports provide a rare glimpse at the tension and violence of everyday life behind bars--a highly charged and antagonistic environment in which, authorities acknowledge, officers sometimes overreact.

While no single lesson is evident, some patterns do emerge:

- Seven of the incidents occurred in the booking area of the jail, the most dangerous area in the county’s entire system of incarceration. In the booking area, an inmate is especially volatile because his freedom has suddenly been snatched away, Grossman and other experts on jail behavior said. And many individuals being booked are still under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

- Seven of the incidents started when deputies were struck by inmates. But even when the inmate strikes first, the experts sometimes hold the deputy responsible because he unnecessarily created a hazardous situation. “If an inmate says he’s going to punch you if you take his cuffs off, don’t take his cuffs off,” said Thomas F. Lonergan, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy who prepared a report for the county grand jury based on a review of the 17 incidents flagged by Grossman.

- Injuries to inmates, mostly cuts or scratches, were reported in 13 of the 17 incidents. In only one incident did a deputy report any injuries. Thirteen of the incidents also involved a single inmate and more than one deputy.

- Two of the incidents involved violations of jail rules prohibiting food in jail cells, and all of the incidents involved defiant behavior by inmates.

Grossman, a former prison warden who once monitored jail conditions in Orange County for a federal judge, was paid $25,000 by the county to conduct a wide-ranging study. On the subject of excessive force, his study concluded that the incident reports alone do not indicate a problem with brutality in Orange County’s jail system.

Nonetheless, the study has prompted serious efforts by the Sheriff’s Department and the grand jury to come up with new ways to manage people in an atmosphere that is inherently volatile.

Grossman reviewed more than 1,000 incident reports, 88 of which involved fighting between deputies and inmates, that were written in a 3-month period. Only the 17 that he singled out raised concerns, he said. “This equates to about one such incident every 5.3 days in a facility housing 1,296 inmates,” he said.

But both Grossman and Lonergan, the grand jury’s consultant, recommended that the Sheriff’s Department make a greater effort to train deputies in ways to defuse hostile situations and to be aware when they are contributing to an already charged atmosphere.

Recommendations Adopted

Assistant Sheriff John (Rocky) Hewitt said most of those recommendations are being implemented. Some that require more money or manpower--such as a special response team in the jail or additional video cameras--have been beyond the reach of the Sheriff’s Department budget.

In response to the report, the department has adopted a new policy that will require a sergeant to be at the scene of every confrontation whenever possible. And ranking officers will play a larger role in the follow-up review of every incident, Hewitt said.

Several of the recommendations suggested new methods of training for in-service deputies as well as recruits. Hewitt said jail deputies recently completed a series of training classes on the use of force that stressed some of the concepts the county report suggested.

Grossman stressed in his report that it is very easy for a deputy to escalate a dangerous situation just through his tone of voice or body language. The new training amounts to a sensitivity awareness program in which deputies are taught to subvert their own emotional reaction to name calling or aggression and to respond with a professional and calculated attitude.

One part of the training, for example, asked deputies to recognize “personal space.” That concept recognizes that any touching--even a hand on a shoulder-- or just close contact can set off a defensive reaction.

“Personal space is common to all species in the animal kingdom,” Lonergan said. “If you enter it, be prepared to take offensive action because something will happen.”

Sheriff’s Lt. Daniel J. Martini, who ran the recent training classes on use of force, said: “We used the word machismo and said: ‘Are you exuding that to this inmate? Do you need to do that? Is that part of your makeup?’ We stress body language and tell them to ‘keep a 10-foot span between you and the inmate.’ (The inmate) feels more comfortable with that.”

Hewitt said the department is reducing the number of pat-down searches it conducts in order to keep physical contact between deputies and inmates to a minimum. The alternative on some occasions is a visual search in which the inmate might unzip his jumpsuit and lift articles of clothing.

“We teach them to evaluate the situation,” Martini said. “Is this a hands-on situation, or can you do this without hands on?”

Some Rules Criticized

Grossman complained in his report that the Sheriff’s Department is too strict about enforcing sometimes frivolous rules that unnecessarily create hostility between inmates and deputies.

He cited rules such as a requirement that inmates keep their hands in their pockets while being moved, a prohibition against talking by inmates while they are being moved and a requirement that inmates be in full jail dress while they are in the day room.

“A number of these rules appear to create unnecessary behavior problems which then result in disciplinary action,” Grossman wrote. The “minor offenses become major write-ups, usually based on the inmate’s refusal to obey a directive, and occasionally result in the use of force.”

But Hewitt said the department believes that the rules are necessary and has not, so far, changed them.

“Many times, even though rules seem small or insignificant to somebody, when you’re moving large numbers of (dangerous) people and you have to control them . . . you can’t let people come and go as they please,” Hewitt said. “We train every deputy to use common sense, but there is a reason for every rule.”

Lonergan and Grossman said their studies were not intended to determine whether specific deputies should be punished or whether rules were violated in certain incidents. They were looking at a bigger picture to determine whether policies and practices at the jail are adequate.

No Exceptional Problems

Both said they did not consider Orange County’s jail system to have any exceptional problems with use of force.

“I think they stand in the middle ground,” said Lonergan. “I don’t think they are exceptionally good or exceptionally bad.”

Grossman noted in his report, though, that most of the inmates believe that excessive use of force by deputies is widespread.

Thomas F. Maniscalco, an inmate charged with a triple murder who has been awaiting trial in Orange County Jail for more than 4 years, said the booking area is by far the worst part of the jail when excessive force is the issue.

“The perception is that the booking process is a terror process,” he said recently. “It’s complete fear and intimidation. I think that’s known and understood by all the inmates.”

In the main housing areas of the jail, Maniscalco said, incidents of excessive force are more likely to be limited to specific deputies.

“Once in the jail, it’s more related to the individual,” he said. “A particular deputy might have a need to humiliate, or some have a sadistic streak.”