Baca says he was out of touch with countyâs jails
In a searing self-critique, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca acknowledged that he was out of touch about problems in his jails and had failed to implement important reforms that could have minimized deputy brutality against inmates.
Faced with an FBI investigation into the jail system and mounting criticism over his handling of the crisis, Baca said in a long interview with The Times that his command staff has at times left him in the dark about the jailsâ woes.
âI wasnât ignoring the jails. I just didnât know,â Baca said. âPeople can say, âWhat the hell kind of leader is that?â The truth is I shouldâve known. So now I do know.â
FULL COVERAGE: Jails under scrutiny
He noticed only during a recent visit to Menâs Central Jail that video cameras purchased more than a year ago to help monitor deputies and inmates had not been installed. The 69 cameras are still in boxes in a captainâs office. Baca has since committed to installing them by the end of the year.
âI am the ultimate authority here,â he said. âThereâs no excuse for such a major project as this going undone.â
Bacaâs statements offer a marked contrast to his reputation as an energetic and progressive-minded executive. They also provide a rare window into Bacaâs struggles to run his sprawling department. The Sheriffâs Department operates the nationâs largest jail system, with custody facilities across the county, and provides police patrols for scores of communities and security for L.A.âs mass transit system.
Baca said his subordinates have insulated him from âbad news.â He said he scolded the subordinate responsible for overseeing the camera project.
âEveryone wants to handle it; they believe itâs their job, but handling it and not telling me leaves me vulnerable,â Baca said. âI have to be informed.â
Interviews by The Times with sheriffâs and county officials suggest that Bacaâs management problems at times extend beyond jail matters.
Those who know him well say heâs succeeded in areas in which he is most engaged, such as immigrant outreach. Violent crime has fallen in areas patrolled by the Sheriffâs Department, notably in Compton, where Baca has focused extra resources. He takes calls from members of the public, even entertaining rants from a group he calls his âhabitual callers.â
At public events, he will hear out complaints against deputies.
His willingness to listen and reach out to others has made him a popular figure in some quarters. Voters have reelected him by large margins three times. But even Bacaâs supporters say he runs into trouble when he fails to take a close interest in important matters.
For example, Baca recently boasted that there were no citizen complaints alleging racism by his deputies in the Antelope Valley. He spoke at a news conference at which federal authorities were announcing a massive civil rights investigation into allegations of discrimination by deputies.
In fact, residents had been complaining for years. A sheriffâs spokesman later had to say his boss was wrong.
Some say Baca, after 13 years in office, must take more responsibility for his bureaucracyâs failings. County Supervisor Gloria Molina criticized the departmentâs failure to carry out numerous reforms suggested by two watchdogs over the years.
âIâm sure that heâs frustrated by his bureaucracy. But thereâs a point in time when it all lines up and it tells you that youâve got to step in and take some action. And thatâs today. Heâs the only one who can do it,â said Molina, who described Baca as a âsweetheart.â âI think he needs to be much more aggressive.â
Among the reforms Molina says the sheriff needs to make: putting new limits on when deputies can use head strikes against inmates, intensifying supervision by having sergeants regularly walk the jail floors and requiring nurses and other medical staff to report suspicious inmate injuries. She said the recommendations had previously been made by the countyâs Office of Independent Review and Merrick Bobb, a special counsel to the Board of Supervisors on sheriffâs issues.
The FBI is investigating reports of abuse and other misconduct. The U.S. attorneyâs office more recently demanded a large volume of documents on deputies and others working in the jail, including reports of force used on inmates, since 2009. The FBI probe includes allegations that deputies carved racist initials into one inmateâs head and broke the jaw of another inmate.
Baca was initially defiant. Facing calls for his resignation, he insisted that all misconduct complaints were thoroughly investigated. Since then, the Office of Independent Review has faulted some of the departmentâs investigations as âlackluster, sometimes slanted, and insufficiently thorough.â
In the last two weeks, the sheriff has adopted a more conciliatory tone that coincides with his taking a more active role in the jails. Baca has held town hall-style meetings with inmates to hear their complaints and plans to similarly meet with jail deputies.
Baca now says that some deputies are prone to using excessive force and that he is reconsidering proposals he had long rejected. One area that might be changed is the departmentâs practice of starting rookies in the jails, which critics say can teach young deputies to treat everyone like criminals. Baca now says it is worth considering a two-track career system as a way to develop a core of veteran, experienced jailers who genuinely want to work in custody.
At 4 a.m. on a recent morning at home, Baca crafted what he called a force prevention policy, which he scrawled on the back of 10 junk mail envelopes. The sheriff said it is an important part of trying to change the culture within his jails.
Baca repeatedly told The Times that he deserves the blame for the jailsâ problems. But he also didnât hesitate to point the finger at his command staff.
âI think the younger deputies are not prepared to use sensible force in certain situations. Is it their fault alone? No. Is it my fault? Yes,â Baca told The Times. âBut my accountability is diffused within the chain of command to those that I entrust to do this job of managing deputy behavior.â
Baca expressed regret that he hadnât instituted regular floor assignment rotations at Menâs Central Jail earlier, a reform that watchdogs say would reduce the possibility of deputies forming gang-like groups in the jail.
A proposal to begin the rotations was panned before it reached his desk, he said. It wasnât revived until after The Times began reporting on a group of deputies who were identified as members of a clique that had formed on the lockupâs third floor. The deputies were accused of assaulting three fellow deputies last year at an employee Christmas party.
âThat one flew over my head,â Baca said of the rotation plan. âNo one told me it was a way to get rid of the cliques.â
Some serious brutality complaints also never reached him, he said. Earlier this year, a chaplain who in 2009 reported seeing three deputies beat an unresisting inmate approached Baca to discuss the outcome of the investigation. He was surprised to learn that the sheriff had never heard of the incident.
âThis happened two years ago,â Baca said to his executive staff, according to two people in the room, âand Iâm only finding out about it now?â
And he said he was taken by surprise when the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California publicly accused deputies of systematic abuse and called for his resignation.
Baca faulted the ACLU, a court-appointed monitor of jailhouse conditions, for not reporting allegations of abuse to his department directly. But he admitted that he should have reached out sooner to the civil rights organization to understand its concerns.
âI got my butt beat by the ACLU pretty good, and I deserved it,â Baca said. âThe key is, I got the message.â
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