A number of “horrific events” occurred recently on Bauchet Street in downtown Los Angeles, according to Lael Rubin, a commissioner with the Civilian Oversight Commission.
At the commission’s Thursday meeting, Rubin described a severely overcrowded inmate reception center run by the Sheriff’s Department. Discussing people “tethered” to benches with chains and in cuffs, Assistant Inspector General Cathleen Beltz supported Rubin’s claims. Beltz laid out the shocking details at the commission’s most recent meeting, which Sheriff Alex Villanueva declined to attend despite being subpoenaed.
“A person who had been there the longest had been there about 111 hours - just over 4.5 days,” Beltz said, adding that she learned of the situation from a confidential informant on Aug. 21, a day that Beltz said she saw LASD’s Inmate Reception Center at its very worst.
Beltz said it’s common to see those with mental health issues secured in cuffs and those cuffs secured to a waist chain to prevent self harm. They are then secured to an immobile object, she said, like a bench or a chair while they wait to be transferred to a room.
Beltz acknowledged, however, it is unusual to have detainees wait in those areas for more than a few hours. And that weekend, Beltz said some people were left waiting for days with little access to food or mental health medications.
While the excessively long waits can be tied to the Coronavirus Pandemic — due to low staffing, and social distancing, Beltz and L.A. County Inspector General Max Huntsman said the overall issue of severe overcrowding is not new in the department.
“We have reported on this kind of issue before. People being chained to benches with nowhere to go,” Huntsman said. “We report it, but when the county is put on notice for a problem and is indifferent for years...that’s a problem.
To address the situation during the pandemic, Beltz said the inspector general’s office will continue to recommend the immediate release of inmates in order to return to a capacity of less than 12,000 people.
Though Villanueva ignored the commission’s request to attend Thursday’s meeting, Assistant Sheriff of Custody Operations, Brendan J. Corbett joined the virtual meeting.
Corbett addressed overcrowding and lack of sanitation in some situations with comments similar to the inspector general's office, that COVID-19 was a root issue of the severe overcrowding faced by the department in the last few months.
“The Delta [variant] spike hit us harder than we anticipated. During that time we had a 30 percent positivity rate. Prior to that it was just over one percent,” he said.
Corbett added that the budget LASD has access to is also a significant factor when it comes to long wait times.
“Not to sidetrack, but we’ve had significant budget cuts. We’re at minimum staffing often, especially on the weekends,” he said. “We did the best we could.”
To alleviate the overcrowding, Corbett said the department has begun to cut the intake of inmates between Friday and Sunday nights.
Dr. Cheryl Grills shared information from a report based on six inspections during a month-long period from August to September.
On multiple occasions, Grills said she found no soap in bathroom dispensers — something absolutely necessary during the coronavirus pandemic. In other instances, she noted the long wait times at IRC, which led to inmates sleeping on the floor and waiting excessively long times for their next meal.
To address the sanitation issues, Corbett said he was not sure why there was no soap.
“Maybe inmate workers usually fill them?” he said. “With work shortages and quarantines...that means it really won’t get done unless my deputies do it...it may have just been an oversight.”
LASD is working with Correctional Health Services to expand a contract for cleaning services to remove the workload from deputies, according to Corbett. But that will again come down to a budget.
On the subject of food, Corbett said it all comes down to who is making the meals.
“Not to make an excuse, but we feed 15,000 inmates three times a day and I’m 70 staff members short. I’ve had deputy sheriffs making sandwiches,” he said. “We’re doing more with less.”
The food delivered to those at IRC comes from the Twin Towers kitchen, Corbett said, which sometimes leads to longer-than-normal wait times for meals.
“I would like to say it’s an anomaly,” he said. “But it happens more often than it should.’
Criticism of the LASD’s oversight of jails has preceded Villanueva's tenure. In 2012, a blue ribbon panel report found a "persistent pattern of unreasonable force" by Sheriff's deputies against inmates that stretched back years.
The report placed the blame with then-Sheriff Lee Baca and his Undersheriff Paul Tanaka. Both are serving time in federal prison for trying to cover up abuses.
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