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| L.A. sheriff lets media in jails, says officers are outnumbered |
| By Copley News Service |
| Published: 05/24/2004 |
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Graffiti and filth covers some walls inside Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail, where five people have been killed in six months and where Sheriff Lee Baca contends the officers are severely outnumbered. In light of the scrutiny focusing on Baca and his department, he took the extraordinary step last week of opening the downtown Los Angeles jails to the media, saying he wants the public to better understand what his department is up against. "I need more staff," said Baca, who heads the nation's largest sheriff's department. Baca said he wasn't trying to "scapegoat" the killings on decreased funding. But, he explained, at the 41-year-old Men's Central Jail there are 150 officers per shift overseeing up to 7,000 inmates. In the entire county jail system, a staff of 2,800 oversees about 17,000 inmates. "Do more with less. That is what we're compelled to do," he told reporters. "It only makes sense that something's going to break." Focus on the jails has increased since it was alleged that Raul Tinajero, 20, was killed last month in his cell by his former partner in crime, Santiago Pineda. Tinajero had become a government witness against Pineda and was going to testify against him in a murder trial. A judge had ordered that the two be separated at the jail, where inmates are sometimes crowded five to a cell that has four beds. However, Pineda reportedly was allowed to roam freely about the jail and found Tinajero, strangling him, officials have said. Before Baca's tour last week, District Attorney Steve Cooley announced that he would form a task force to investigate the inmate deaths, as well as overall inmate safety. Inside the jail, deputies took reporters to the locations of the five slayings, including the cramped cell at the end of a tier where Tinajero was killed. |
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