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LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Mon Feb 06, 2006 at 11:22:12 PM EST
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Racially motivated riots this weekend at jails around Los Angeles have resulted in the inmates being placed in lockdown and in emergency segregation.

Black and Hispanic inmates at the North County Correctional Facility were segregated Saturday after the fighting broke out among 1,800 to 2,000 inmates and a black inmate was killed. Craton said the inmates were still separated early Monday.

Normally, authorities can't segregate prisoners based on race or ethnicity, but legal advisers said it can be done in emergency situations, said Sam Jones, chief custody officer of the county jail system.

The sheriff says the riots are the result of a shortage of guards, which in turn are the product of budget cuts.

On a typical Saturday night, 77 deputies are scheduled to watch the 4,000 prisoners at the North County facility in Castaic, sheriff's Sgt. Michael Waldman said this weekend. That ratio of about 50 inmates for every deputy is the highest in the country, [Sheriff] Baca said.

...Baca said that budget cuts forced him to stop hiring new deputies for about two years, creating a shortage of more than 1,000 deputies. Despite a recruitment effort and media campaign, the department has been unable to reduce that number, instead struggling to keep above near-record attrition. Nearly 500 deputies left the department in 2005, many of them unhappy with long assignments in the jails and the high cost of housing in Los Angeles County.

....In some instances, inmates outnumber deputies 100 to 1, the sheriff said.

Segregation in California's prisons has been a hot button topic for several years.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court said prison officials cannot segregate inmates by race except under extraordinary circumstances in which segregation is the only way to maintain inmate safety.

I wrote about the Supreme Court decision here, and California's race-based prisons here and here.

Gov. Arnold needs to find some money for the prison system. Why isn't he quoted in any of the articles today about the weekend riots? Does he think it's not his problem?

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    LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode | 7 comments (7 topical)
    Re: LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode (none / 0) (#1)
    by Darryl Pearce on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 06:04:35 AM EST
    Well..., since we can talk about our make-believe dream-world and I've not studied the issue an any great length, I supposed I can comment: Every prison should be like Pelican Bay--harsh--but sentences should be short... weeks instead of years. Then treatment and training under a probationary system. I am ...alarmed at the amount of people the United States feels compelled to keep imprisoned, domestically, internationally, openly, and who-knows-how-many secretly....

    Re: LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 07:36:41 AM EST
    You said it, brother, you live in a dream world, and have very limited knowledge of the subject.

    Re: LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode (none / 0) (#3)
    by Slado on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 07:43:50 AM EST
    If you listned to NPR this morning you would have heard that according to the head of the Sherrifs department the deal is guards are actually Sherrifs deputies that serve their first 2-3years as guards. This is not a popular policy so they are having trouble recruiting and retaining deputies/gaurds, hence the low guard to criminal rate. The Sheriffs department has actually had increased spending so he doesn't agree with the mentioned jailer.

    Re: LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode (none / 0) (#5)
    by Patrick on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 08:58:58 AM EST
    Jails differ from prisons in that jail committments are generally short term. (less than 1 year). All custody facilities (local, state and federal) use inmate classification procedures in which one consideration is race, as is gang affiliation, escape risk, incustody behavior, etc. Let them do their job to properly classify prisoners. desegregation isn't the answer IMO. What it will do it place potential victims (Of any color) closer to their soon to be victimizer. Removing the ability to use one aspect of the classification process won't make prisons/jails safer.

    Re: LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode (none / 0) (#6)
    by Slado on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 09:25:59 AM EST
    Patrick, good point as evidenced by the death victim yesterday was a former sex offender only in jail for a small time because he didn't register "allegedly" for a sex offender list. What if he was in day for a DUI or a domestic dispute or whatever. Putting all the black, whites or whoever together just on race alone with have violet, sex offender etc.. grouped togheter. Obviously these are extreme circumstances. The real problem is jail overcrowding and the fact that a higher percentage of prisoners are gang and violent crime offenders more likely to take advantage of a dorm room enviornment common in county jails.

    Re: LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode (none / 0) (#7)
    by Johnny on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 08:42:44 PM EST
    Simple solution... Release all non-violent drug offenders and replace them with non-violent white collar corporate criminals. Then change will be forthcoming.

    Re: LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode (none / 0) (#8)
    by jimcee on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 10:01:24 PM EST
    Some inmates wrote demands that they wanted to be segregated. So how does that work with Talk Left's past posts about forced integration in the CA state prison system? Yes you can hire more guards but it just puts more guards in the way of an obviously volatile situation. If the inmates want to be segregated then why should they be forced to be integrated? To sooth some Lefty's idea of social justice? And at the cost and risk of more guards and inmates being hurt or killed? For some perverted idea of justice? Not to put too fine of point on it but is TL trying to encourage prison violence and put guards in the way to promote its idea of fair justice? If seperating people in prison to avoid violence is a bad thing then please explain it in rational terms not some philosophical nonsense. Are you promoting violence as a cause for change in the prison system? If that is the case then that is a perverted idea of justice.

    LA County Jails in Emergency Segregration Mode | 7 comments (7 topical)