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| Inmate Death Probes to Get Review in L.A. County |
| By San Gabriel Valley Tribune |
| Published: 10/28/2002 |
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In light of 100 prisoners' deaths in Los Angeles County jails in less than three years, a civilian oversight panel will began reviewing jail death investigations by the Sheriff's Department. 'Just recently, we adopted a new policy with Sheriff Lee Baca's approval that if there is a death of an inmate in custody that we will conduct a review of that investigation,' said Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the Office of Independent Review at a news conference October 17 to unveil the panel's first report. Elaborating later, Gennaco said the county jails have a jail death review team but the reviews almost never include the sheriff's internal affairs investigators. Gennaco said he and his team of five civil rights attorneys will oversee the investigations, bring the internal affairs investigators in to help and make recommendations on discipline and policy changes to prevent more deaths. Since 2000, 100 inmates have died in county jails, the largest jail system in the nation with 19,000 inmates. They included two murders, 13 suicides, 78 deaths due to natural causes, six with unknown causes of death that are pending and one classified as 'other,' according to the Sheriff's Department. There were 35 inmate deaths in 2000, 37 in 2001 and 28 so far this year. Numerous lawsuits and civil claims have been filed in recent years alleging inadequate medical care and excessive force by sheriff's employees contributed to the deaths. 'People die in our jails just as they die anywhere else in the county,' Baca said. 'For people in the community, the tendency is to think that the jail was responsible for the deaths. 'But the sheriff has the responsibility to find all the facts, including what caused the death and what did the Sheriff's Department fail to do that led up to the death and to find if there is anything the Sheriff's Department could do to prevent the death.' The new report found that the Sheriff's Department failed to investigate more than 800 civil claims of employee misconduct from 1993 to 2001, missing the chance to solve problems and cut costs. In the past three years, the department's litigation costs have soared from $11.9 million in 1999-2000 to $26.7 million in 2001-02. |
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