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 concerns about jails and to ensure that we are doing the best we possibly can, I have implemented two separate task forces.”

The first, called the Commander Management Task Force, will hold Community Town Hall meetings with jail inmates, ensure that all personnel interact with inmates in a “manner consistent with the Core Values of the Sheriff’s Department”, conduct a comprehensive review of current inmate complaint process, as well as provide mentoring and oversight of Department personnel.

“I have also ordered a complete review of our current Department-wide employee personnel performance monitoring system,” Baca said.  ”This database helps us monitor our personnel for early warning signs of employees who performance may need to be addressed today to avoid problems in the future.”

According to an Oct. 9 report published by the LA Times, the second task force will consist of 35 full-time investigators who will reexamine old and current allegations of inmate abuse.

The Special Jail Investigations Task Force will be assigned to “thoroughly investigate each of the 78 declarations  alleging criminal or administrative misconduct,” Baca said.  ”While some allegations were previously investigated, each will be thoroughly re-investigated by this task force. I take these allegations very seriously.”

Sheriff Baca and his deputies are responsible for the supervision of more than 15,000 inmates in the LA County jail system, the busiest in the country. The Sheriff disputes the claims that have been made by the ACLU. The ACLU stated during a news conference that the sheriff and his top commanders were intentionally indifferent to the claims of inmates and civilian visitors to the jail about routine assaults on inmates by deputies.

There has been one instance where an inmate at the Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail claimed deputies accused him of stealing mail before breaking his eye socket and putting him in a jail cell with two gang members. The deputies ignored the inmate’s pleas for help when the gang members assaulted him and held his head in the toilet. The man was in jail for making criminal threats and reported this occurrence in a sworn declaration.

Former FBI special agent, Tom Parker, conducted an investigation of the LA County jails for the ACLU, and stated that the jail system is being run “through corruption, through intimidation, through unchecked violence and negligent, perhaps even nonexistent, supervision and management.”

Sheriff Baca said that the ACLU’s statements were “hyperbole” aimed at getting headlines and that the department takes any allegations of misconduct seriously. According to the ACLU, there were thousands of brutality complaints just last year. A 22-page report includes 70 sworn statements, including two from chaplains and one from a Hollywood producer.

One of the newest schemes coming to light is one in which the inmate will call a number and yell “Emergency!” when the recording plays stating that the phone call is from an inmate at the jail.

If the person on the receiving end accepts the call, the inmate will claim to be a deputy or jail employee with information about an injured loved one. They will instruct the person to call a supervisor or sergeant for more information, telling them to dial *72 and then a phone number given by the inmate. This phone number is usually for a girlfriend or fellow gang member. Deputies say that, by entering the code *72, all calls will be transferred to the phone number that’s been entered.

Once the victim unknowingly sets their phone up to transfer calls, the inmate will start making phone calls, passing all of the charges along to the victim, investigators say. The cost of these calls will grow very quickly, sometimes into the thousands of dollars, before the victim even realizes there is a problem.

Public complaints are what alerted the Sheriff’s Department to this scam.

“We have gotten complaints and we are investigating them,” said spokesman Steve Whitmore. “But it’s very difficult to tell which inmate was on the phone.”

Anyone who receives this type of call is advised to notify the local sheriff’s department. “Our jail will never call you and leave a number for you to call,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Department is taking steps to monitor this issue and hopes to do away with this problem thanks to new phone technology.

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 scheduled and homicide investigators are examining the cause of death.

On Monday, a statement was filed at the courthouse by an ACLU staffer who had visited the jail and claims to have witnessed the act which spawned the investigation.

The ACLU staffer, Esther Lim, stated that she saw two deputies through a window, who were unaware of her presence, and she was able to see them punching, kicking and tasering an inmate while his body appeared to be limp.

According to an internal sheriff’s log, the incident was confirmed to have happened on January 24, although the log further stated that the inmate was punching the deputies until they had no other choice by to tase him. Lim stated that the deputies’ log was distorted and that the inmate, James Parker, was completely lifeless and Lim worried that he was dead.

The allegations are suggesting that Lim, during the incident, heard the deputies repeatedly say in a monotone voice to “stop resisting” and to “stop fighting” and it seemed as if they “were reading it from a script.”

Steve Whitmore, Sheriff’s spokesman, stated that the criminal investigation would be conducted internally and all information would be transferred to prosecutors. Whitmore said, “We didn’t know anything about this.” He also added that the ACLU staffer should have reported this immediately.

According to Lim, the ACLU receives reports all the time from inmates who accuse deputies of beating them and repeating the phrase “stop resisting” even when they aren’t resisting.  She also suspects that those deputies involved have continued to repeat that phrase in order to save themselves upon allegations such as these.

Unfortunately, these types of allegations are hard to prove since the only witnesses are usually the inmates and they are considered less credible.

However, this specific incident has a third party witness. According to court records, one of the accused officers is Ryan Hirsch. The other deputy has only his last name revealed which is “Ochoa.” Whitmore declined to confirm. He also revealed that both deputies have remained on active duty except for one deputy who is on medical leave due to a broken hand, caused from the incident.

James Parker, 35, is being kept separated from the staff and other inmates of the jail as to “maintain the integrity” of the investigation, according to Whitmore. Parker received stitched on his face, a swollen cheek and eye, and pain in his ribs.

Another inmate, Christopher Brown, who was to meet with Lim that day also witnessed and disputed the deputies’ statement. Brown revealed that Ochoa was there during the interview for his witness statement and felt he was being intimidated although the Sheriff’s Department has denied this.

The Twin Towers Correction Facility, aka, Twin Towers Jail is a goliath building located at 441 Bauchet Street. Originally referred to as the “Central Jail Expansion,” it is a 1.5 million square foot complex constructed and opened in 1997 after the Northridge Earthquake. The facility provides housing for over 2,000 inmates. The Towers jail was built on a modern Panoptic design. This system allows jail officers to look in through secure optical material and view all areas of the facility from a central control room. This helps them “keep an eye” on the maximum security inmates and a large portion of L.A. County’s mental health inmates. The Oscar-nominated actor Robert Downey Jr. served over one-hundred days at the Twin Tower facility for violating probation in failing to stay clean and sober. He was placed in a single-person cell at the facility because of his high-profile, celebrity status.

The Twin Towers facility consists of the two towers, a medical services building, and the Los Angeles County Medical Center Jail Ward. The Medical Services Building provides inpatient housing for inmates with various levels of acute medical and mental health needs. Inmates who require higher levels of health care service are transported to the Los Angeles County Medical Center operated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Directly across the street from the Twin Towers Jail and connected by a transfer bridge is the Men’s Central Jail located at 450 Bauchet Street. It currently houses the majority of Los Angeles County’s high-risk, high-security inmates, and ranks as being the largest jail in the world.  Men’s Central Jail (MCJ) houses approximately 5,000 inmates from all around Los Angeles County. Because the Men’s Central Jail is the largest jail in the world, the fiscal aspects of its operation are massive. MCJ’s budget is approximately $50,000,000 per year.

In order to relieve tensions and overcrowding in the Men’s Central Jail, inmates are sometimes transported across the way to the Twin Towers Jail. Cells in the Men’s Central Jail are literally filled to double the capacity intended. There are 200 three-man cells each holding six men. Additionally, there are 200 two-man cells each holding four men.  Inmates are required three hours per week of time out of their cells. Yes, that’s per week.

The Los Angeles County jail system is also comprised of several smaller jails throughout the county. Often times, defendants who are arrested and booked at one of the smaller Los Angeles jails may be transported to the Twin Towers Jail in downtown Los Angeles. Because the smaller jails are intended as short-term holding.

Los Angeles County jails are not pleasant places to be incarcerated.  Many people have described the Los Angeles County Jail System as scary, sometimes dangerous and perenially understaffed. It’s better to have read about them here and pondered, than to actually know what it’s like to be inside one of two largest jail facilities in the world.