Deputy Broadcasts Racist Epithets, Unsettling Inmates

No one disputes that what prisoners heard spewing out of the intercom at Monterey County Jail was a string of vile, racist epithets.

What still baffles people around the picturesque coastal enclave south of San Francisco is why was the offending tape recording made? And who would be dumb enough, or vicious enough, to play it several weeks ago for an inmate population already on edge over racial tensions?

The only sure thing is that the incident has frayed nerves far outside the circumscribed world of the jail in Salinas.

Citing allegations that deputies were trying to provoke a “gladiator-like show” for their entertainment, activists are demanding sensitivity training for jail personnel and oversight of jail operations by an outside organization.

Monterey attorney Bill Monning, who represents a coalition of civil rights and civil liberties groups, said the incident illustrates festering problems with jail operations in Monterey County that go beyond the current race-based complaints. Citing alleged abuses dating as far back as the beating of an inmate by guards in 1983, Monning said, “This is not an isolated incident.”

He said jail authorities also have a “very poor” complaint-handling process.

Monterey County Sheriff Gordon Sonne called the incident a “one-time occurrence” and not an indication of an atmosphere of intolerance at the jail. He criticized those he feels are trying to use it for political gain. So far, that has not defused the situation.

“A lot of other things are coming to light,” said Helen Rucker, president of the Monterey Peninsula branch of the NAACP. For one thing, she wants to know why an inmate who complained about the broadcast was put in isolation.

According to a report by Sonne, the incident occurred at 7:54 a.m. March 25. Three deputies on duty in the jail, all of whom had military experience, were listening to an audiotape of the soundtrack of the movie “Full Metal Jacket.”

A fictional account of a group of Vietnam War soldiers, the movie begins in boot camp, where the recruits are subjected to a drill instructor’s profanity-laced tirades. As two deputies listened to the tape in the control room, Sonne said, a third pushed the intercom button that transmitted it to a section of the jail called K Pod.

How long the tape ran is in dispute, but the sheriff’s report states that inmates heard four ethnic and racial slurs for African Americans, Latinos, Italians and Jews. Several African American and Latino inmates “took great exception to this and rightfully so,” Sonne said.

The deputy who pushed the intercom button later tried to apologize, according to Sonne, but inmates charged that he was laughing at the time. After the tape was turned off, deputies passed out sack lunches “like they were trying to buy us off or something,” said one inmate.

Asked how prisoners responded to the tape, one said in an interview with Internal Affairs officers that “younger inmates were disgusted and militant. I was glad to see things didn’t escalate into something crazy.”

Rucker said tensions were already high between black and Latino inmates. One week earlier, she said, a black inmate was beaten so severely that his spleen had to be removed.

The ethnic makeup of the jail population is 60% Latino, 12% African American, 20% Caucasian, and 8% other ethnic groups.

Sonne said he reacted forcefully to the incident, launching an inquiry and ordering discipline for the deputies involved. In a telephone interview, Sonne declined to confirm or deny reports that the deputy who pushed the intercom button was fired. “All I can say is the discipline has been severe.”

The deputy’s attorney also declined to talk about the punishment. “We’re still going through the process,” said Larry Katz of San Jose, Northern California counsel for the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs.

As for allegations that the deputy was trying to foment violence between ethnic groups, Katz said, “I know there’s no evidence of that at all.”

Sonne agreed. Told that another law enforcement source had jokingly referred to the deputy’s behavior as the result of a “brain cramp,” Sonne said, “Brain cramp is a good way to put it.”

Sonne said he has ordered additional training to increase his deputies’ sensitivities to racial and ethnic matters. As for concerns that the tape incident has exacerbated tensions at the jail, Sonne said that “tension is always a problem. This issue certainly did not help our inmate situation, but has given us a useful learning tool as we strive to do our job better.”

Others are less ready to accept the explanation that the incident was an isolated case of a deputy with at best an immature sense of humor.

Besides pointing to the inmate put in isolation, which Sonne said was done to protect him, Monning criticized the department for not releasing the audiotape and the names of the deputies involved. Monning wants an oversight committee established to monitor the jail.

“The whole posture is to downplay the incident,” Monning said. “It seems like everyone wishes it would go away.”