Keep Bailing

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said he’s taking allegations of inmate abuse within the LA County jail system seriously.

In response to recent claims made by former department rookie Joshua Sather that he had been instructed by a supervisor to beat a mentally ill inmate, as well as other allegations brought forth by the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU), Baca said he has created two separate task forces address concerns.

“A number of allegations of misconduct including excessive force by Sheriff’s Department jail staff have been brought to my attention,” Baca said in a statement. “In order to address Read more »

George Rosales, an 18-year old Los Angeles County Jail inmate died last week after allegedly being punched in the head by a sheriff’s deputy. It’s been reported that Rosales, who was incarcerated  for armed robbery on July 27, was struck after he attempted to make a run for a prison elevator.

The inmate had been seen drinking water and appeared fine just 15 minutes earlier, prison officials say, but during a subsequent check they found Rosales in a state of distress. Rosales died during ambulance transport to a local hospital.

Sheriffs investigators say Read more »

According to the LA Times, throughout the first quarter of the year, Los Angeles has reported double-digit drops in both violent crimes and property crimes, according to Los Angeles Police Department statistics.

A reported 4,579 serious violent crimes, including homicide, rape, and aggravated assault, have been recorded for 2011 by the end of the day Wednesday. This is equal to 51 incidents a day, which is a 12.5% decrease over the same time span as last year. The number of homicides in Los Angeles dropped from 72 during this time period in 2010 to 63 so far this year.

As with any crime, the number of homicides can Read more »

LOS ANGELES – Yesterday, at approximately 7:30am the 20-year-old inmate was reportedly found lying lifeless in his jail cell at the Men’s Central Jail in L.A, according to the Sheriff’s and Coroner’s officials.

His name has not yet been released to the public and the death of the inmate is now undergoing investigation. There is no information being released now according to why his death occurred or if there was any violence that contributed to his death. An autopsy is Read more »

Two Los Angeles County jail maximum security inmates were captured on Wednesday after escaping from the Castaic jail, where they were being held for several armed robberies.  Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies said Winder Barrios and Jose Aldana were taken into custody without incident about a half a mile from the jail.

They had been reportedly missing for about 14 hours from the North County Correctional Facility.  Residents reported there were two men asking people to give them clothes.  Barrios and Aldana were found in a storage container nearby.

Both men were working on a jail loading dock Read more »

One inmate spoke his mind so perfectly, “How do I find a way to go beyond these bars?” He describes that being is jail is a difficult enviornment in which to exist; with the constant clanking of jail cell doors being shut, inmates shouting and loud instructions coming through the intercom system.

Being locked in a jail cell can’t be easy. But a program initiated at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail , may offer many inmates a much needed ’metaphysical outlet’ by way of meditation classes, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A Buddhist Chaplain has been helping the inmates see a calmer, lighter sense of being through a popular weekly meditiation course being offered. So successful, it’s now Read more »

There’s a new crime wave in LA — geriatric taggers!  Sheriff’s deputies recently arrested a 73-year-old local man for allegedly putting slap tags — stickers with a printed message — inside MTA buses and stations.

Perhaps the aged tagger had had it with ‘teenage tagger-hooligans and their misspellings and their naughty language’.  He certainly showed those ‘young whipper-slappers’ a thing or two by eluding deputies for over half a year.  Witness descriptions of an old man seen around LA’s Westside, plastering orange and black stickers that asked “Who Is John Scott?”  deepened the mystery.

According to the Los Angeles Times, deputies answered his question on November 13, when Read more »

Famed writer  and director and Oscar winning filmmaker, Roman Polanski has come to the end of his run. Polanski, now 76, was taken into custody Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland by Swiss authorities. He’s facing extradiction, having pled guilty to drugging and raping a 13-year old Calfornia girl back in 1977.

Federal officials want to extradite him back to Los Angeles courts to stand before a judge. Seems Polanski was at actor Jack Nicholson’s Read more »

The Los Angeles Police Department has announced that an arrest has been made in conjuction with a break in at the home of Lindsay Lohan.

Nicholas Prugo, 18, of Calabasas, is believed to have been one of a group of people who were caught on tape entering Lohan’s home last month. LAPD officer Rosario Herrera says detectives made the arrested on Thursday morning on suspicion of felony burglary. Prugo’s bail was set at  $20,000.

Officers believe that Prugo is Read more »

According to the LA Times and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, 20 inmates  at Los Angeles County jails have been infected with the swine flu. Most of the inmates that were infected reside in the Castaic Pitchess Jail.

All inmates that were diagnosed with the swine flu were placed in isolation, similar to that of San Diego jails. There they will be receiving tests and monitoried for seven days. All infected inmates are not receiving visitors. Two of the infected inmates have been taken to a local hospital and are said to be in good condition.

This is not the first reported case of swine flu at the Los Angeles County jail Read more »