Urgent Appeal for Jail Safety

A black inmate who died Sunday after a fight with Latino cellmates at Men’s Central Jail had been placed in a group cell with inmates considered serious security threats, despite repeated warnings to sheriff’s officials that mixing nonviolent and violent inmates can be deadly.

The death brought new criticism of the Sheriff’s Department, which has struggled to calm racially charged violence in the jail system. It has faced scrutiny in the past for killings inside the jails when high-risk and lower-risk inmates are placed together.

Sean Anthony Thompson, 38, had been arrested last week on suspicion of drug possession after he ran a stop sign in Long Beach. Jailers designated Thompson, the father of three, a “moderate security risk” because he had previous convictions for nonviolent felonies. Authorities said he was attacked after coming to the aid of a 63-year-old black cellmate, also charged with drug possession, who was threatened by three younger Latino inmates trying to take over a bunk bed that had the best light for reading. A fourth Latino in the cell did not take part in the attack.

Deputies had classified the three Latinos as so-called “level 8s” -- the second-highest threat level in the county’s inmate classification system and a designation given to inmates with a history of assaults or escapes. The men -- ages 18, 21 and 25 -- were in jail on such charges as robbery, felony assault with a gun and a parole violation on a previous attempted-murder conviction, Sheriff’s Department sources said.

The Sheriff’s Department continues to combine inmates of notably different threat levels even though the practice was deemed “not permissible” under any circumstances in a confidential report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors more than a year ago that raised numerous safety concerns about the jail’s use of security classifications.

That report by Merrick Bobb, who oversees the Sheriff’s Department for the supervisors, was commissioned after the killing of five inmates over seven months in late 2003 and early 2004 -- with three of the deaths blamed on victims being housed with more violent offenders.

Thompson’s death marks the second time in three months that a jail inmate has died after being placed with more dangerous inmates. In November, a mentally ill man was stomped to death by violent gang members in a room with no supervision at Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

Sheriff’s officials acknowledged the practice is dangerous.

“We won’t be doing that in the future. We’re going to stop that,” said Marc Klugman, head of the Correctional Services Division.

But he said the mixing of moderate-security threat inmates with more violent offenders will continue through the end of March, when jailers will be able to shift high-risk offenders to facilities such as the Twin Towers jail downtown.

In heated questioning of sheriff’s jail officials at Tuesday’s board meeting, county supervisors warned that they were facing massive liability if such mismatches continue.

“We are in a war,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich. “As we delay these ideas ... we continue to provide a threat to the safety of our sheriff’s personnel and other inmates who are in those facilities.... Somehow, you have a week of rioting, there can’t be a greater sense of urgency for us to make timely decisions to bring on the additional personnel and make the necessary changes.”

Supervisor Gloria Molina expressed growing frustration with the sheriff’s effort to reduce jail violence in a testy exchange with Klugman during Tuesday’s board meeting.

“Everything that’s going on in our communities is coming into our jails in a concentrated form,” Klugman said. “I agree with you that we need to do better. We’re trying to do better.”

That prompted Molina to retort: “That really leaves me almost hopeless about some of the issues that are going on.... Right now, we are creating a real Band-Aid operation out there.”

Bobb called the dynamics in the six-man cell at Men’s Central Jail where Thompson died “a tinderbox.” He said that not only was the mixing of security levels dangerous, but the matchup of four Latino inmates to two black inmates was in itself a problem, particularly more than a week into large-scale racial rioting in the jail system.

“I am dismayed,” Bobb said Tuesday, adding that he did not understand why changes recommended more than a year ago were still not implemented.

Sheriff Lee Baca is an elected official, not an appointee of the Board of Supervisors, although he and other sheriff’s officials regularly appear before the board to answer questions. The supervisors fund the Sheriff’s Department out of county revenue.

Thompson wasn’t even in the system when rioting began at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic on Feb. 4. He was stopped three days later by Long Beach police for allegedly running a stop sign and was arrested after officers found a small rock-like substance believed to be cocaine.

He pleaded not guilty Thursday to one felony count of possession of a controlled substance, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. His bail was set at $35,000 and he was transferred to county jail.

Thompson’s sister, Trina Thompson, said deputies did not tell her the other inmates were more dangerous.

They told her that her brother, a large man who suffered from high blood pressure and chronic asthma, tried to protect the older black cellmate.

“They shouldn’t have placed that old man in there with those high security risk Latinos,” she said. “My brother was outnumbered.”

Sheriff’s officials said one of the four Latinos, a 30-year-old man charged with spousal rape and ranked a moderate security risk, did not participate in the fight.

Thompson complained of chest pains and shortness of breath after deputies broke up the disturbance. He died a short time later.

His autopsy was performed Monday, but Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said the results would not be released until toxicology tests come back, probably in six to eight weeks. Sheriff’s homicide detectives are investigating the case.

Thompson’s longtime girlfriend, Joey Dasecke, 37, of Bellflower, said she did not learn what had happened to her companion of seven years until she tried to check on his whereabouts using the jail’s Internet inmate finder Monday. On the site she saw Thompson listed as “deceased.”

Criminal court records show a few drug possession charges for Thompson that date back to the early 1990s. Dasecke said he had had some problems with drugs but she knew of no instance when he had been violent.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Antonovich faulted sheriff’s officials for the slow progress in recruiting deputies and attempts to improve security in the jails.

Reacting to news that Thompson had been housed alongside much more dangerous inmates, Antonovich said: “Doesn’t that indicate that it’s not working?”

Though no new major disturbances have occurred since Sunday, the riots and fights had gone on for the previous nine days, involving thousands of jail inmates.

In addition to Thompson’s death, a black inmate was beaten to death in the first riot and more than 100 inmates have been injured, some seriously.

Sheriff’s officials told county supervisors that they would not segregate inmates by either gangs or race.

Chief Sammy L. Jones, who heads the department’s custodial division, said the jails do not have the space to properly separate gangs -- an action that would leave many beds empty in dorms assigned to particular gangs.

Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe called on their colleagues to stop blaming sheriff’s officials for the jail’s problems, noting that the department was in the middle of revamping the way it decides where inmates should be housed.

“There’s plenty of blame to go round,” Yaroslavsky said, addressing sheriff’s officials. “But I think that these guys are problem solvers.”

Times staff writer Cynthia Cho contributed to this report.