{"id":455669,"date":"2026-09-06T20:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455669\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T20:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:38:18","slug":"inmate-safety-checks-flagged-in-more-than-100-la-county-jail-deaths-watchdog-says-daily-bulletin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455669\/","title":{"rendered":"Inmate safety checks flagged in more than 100 LA County jail deaths, watchdog says \u2013 Daily Bulletin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staff inside Los Angeles County\u2019s jails performed safety checks to an \u201cexemplary\u201d standard while their supervisors were watching, but those standards plummeted when their bosses weren\u2019t around, according to a report<\/a> by the Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General.<\/p>\n

Amid concerns that negligence may have played a part in the deaths of more than 100 people in custody, the OIG visited Men\u2019s Central Jail and Twin Towers Correctional Facility in December and January \u2014 alongside each facility\u2019s leadership \u2014 to observe how sheriff\u2019s deputies handled routine checks on inmates.<\/p>\n

The inspector general has flagged \u201cthe quality and\/or timeliness of safety checks\u201d in approximately 40% of the 253 in-custody deaths<\/a> from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2025, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Safety checks, required by law every 15 to 60 minutes depending on the type of housing, are meant to verify \u201csigns of life\u201d in the cells.<\/p>\n

While observed, the staff at Twin Towers \u201ctook several seconds to look into each cell and utilized their flashlights to elicit a response from people in custody when performing safety checks.\u201d But when the OIG watched CCTV footage of the checks before and after the visit with the department\u2019s top brass, the deputies no longer broke their stride and completed checks in less than a minute on average.<\/p>\n

At Men\u2019s Central Jail, they skipped whole sections of the required route.<\/p>\n

Lack of serious discipline<\/p>\n

The OIG questioned safety checks in seven of the 10 deaths on the same floor of MCJ since 2020. Deputies rarely faced more than a slap on the wrist, if they were investigated at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn several administrative death reviews, facility leadership have been reticent to impose discipline on custody staff who have conducted untimely and\/or poor quality safety checks,\u201d the report states. \u201cInstead, the Department often opened supervisor inquiries (which ultimately concluded that safety checks were timely or of sufficient quality) and\/or opted to conduct additional briefings or re-train staff on how to properly conduct safety checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

An administrative investigation into an October 2022 death found safety checks were nearly two hours late. Three deputies received a written reprimand.<\/p>\n

In 2023, a man was attacked in the showers and then dragged to a bunk, but he was not discovered until nearly four hours later. In between, his wristband was cleared in a headcount, though he was \u201cbloody, bruised and swelling,\u201d the report states. One officer was reprimanded.<\/p>\n

Twenty deputies received reprimands for 19 hours of \u201cpoor quality\u201d safety checks in July 2024 in which they failed to notice a man who had been dead for so long that he had turned purple and stiffened from rigor mortis.<\/p>\n

In another instance, the department determined safety checks were compliant with department policy, though a man was on the floor of a MCJ dorm \u201cin different positions and seemingly unable to rise for approximately 22 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe video additionally showed that during a safety check, people in custody appeared to wave their arms to get assistance from the custody staff members conducting the check, who walked to the individual and appeared to speak to him briefly before leaving,\u201d the report states. \u201cCustody staff did not transport the person to TTCF for a higher level of mental health care until after he had defecated on himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputies received training, counseling or performance log entries \u2014 a note used in performance reviews \u2014 following other deaths with seemingly deficient safety checks, including instances in which deputies failed to remove obstructions preventing them from looking into cells where someone later died.<\/p>\n

The fact that safety checks were \u201cexemplary\u201d when conducted in the presence of OIG staff and jail leadership suggests \u201ccustody staff are aware of the legal, policy and facility expectations for conducting safety checks\u201d and do not require additional training to understand their responsibilities, the report states.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the sheriff\u2019s Custody Services Division said it takes seriously its duty to conduct timely and meaningful safety checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department has strengthened training, electronic monitoring, supervisory review and accountability surrounding inmate safety checks,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cSafety checks are electronically documented and monitored through a web-based system, supervisors conduct audits, and dedicated safety check sergeants monitor compliance and address identified deficiencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the OIG has raised concerns about the quality and timeliness of safety checks in certain in-custody death reviews, that should \u201cnot be interpreted as a determination that safety check deficiency caused or contributed to those deaths,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach in-custody death is reviewed based on its individual circumstances, and any potential policy violation identified during that process is evaluated separately,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

The department stated it opened 31 administrative investigations and imposed discipline on 81 staff members related to safety checks since 2022. It declined to provide data about the severity of the disciplinary actions.<\/p>\n

Did action plans matter?<\/p>\n

The OIG, in its review, attempted to evaluate whether corrective action plans instituted at MCJ and Twin Towers in response to deaths had made a difference. It found that checks at MCJ, in particular, remained poor. Of the 171 safety checks in MCJ\u2019s 5500 dorm from Oct. 18 to Oct. 31, only 2% were \u201cquality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review used CCTV footage and a \u201cconservative\u201d analysis that dinged custody staff for not properly checking a cell only if they were observed \u201cnot moving their head or looking away from a cell\u201d altogether.<\/p>\n

While checks in MCJ were timely, none was staggered, meaning inmates could easily predict when the next check would occur. On about 93% of the checks, staff did not enter the bathroom as required, though a man had received fatal injuries from an attack in the showers in that same dorm just two years earlier.<\/p>\n

The average duration of each safety check was just 39 seconds. That means staff spent an \u201caverage of half a second\u201d observing each of the 82 people housed there, the report noted.<\/p>\n

Reviews of safety checks in two pods of Twin Towers during the same period had much better results. Approximately 91% and 90% of the checks performed were deemed quality. However, staff still \u201coften walked quickly and rarely broke stride when conducting safety checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The average check took just 38 seconds in one pod and 39 seconds in the other.<\/p>\n

Oversight lacking<\/p>\n

The OIG\u2019s review found that while the Sheriff\u2019s Department requires sergeants to audit safety checks daily, it does not have a standardized criteria, resulting in \u201cinconsistent findings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically, sergeants who audited safety checks at MCJ dorm 5500 determined that checks were quality checks when staff did not walk the required pathway and sergeants who audited safety checks at TTCF module 242 determined that checkswere quality checks when staff did not look into every cell,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

The report recommended the department standardize such audits, hold staff who fail to conduct compliant checks accountable, install additional safety-check scanner barcodes to force deputies to complete the full route, stagger safety checks, require officers to break their stride to look into cells, monitor CCTV in real-time and reduce the jail\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

In its response, the Sheriff\u2019s Department said it has \u201creviewed the OIG\u2019s recommendations and has already implemented or reinforced several mitigating measures addressing training, auditing, supervision and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OIG has continued to flag concerns about safety checks in its quarterly reports throughout this year. The watchdog listed the timeliness and\/or quality of safety checks as an element warranting further investigation in nine of the 22 in-custody deaths from January to June.<\/p>\n

So far this year, 27 people have died in-custody, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Department<\/a>. That\u2019s compared to about 46 total<\/a> last year when the jail population was much higher.<\/p>\n

\u2018Horrifically tragic\u2019<\/p>\n

Haley Broder, chair of the Sybil Brand Commission<\/a>, which routinely conducts jail inspections<\/a>, said she continues to see poor safety checks during every visit. The commission described the lack of adequate safety checks as a \u201clongstanding failure\u201d in a March report<\/a> to the Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is horrifically tragic and also accurate to what I observe,\u201d Broder said of the OIG\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

She often sees tenting \u2014 a sheet or a towel or another obstruction \u2014 that makes it impossible for deputies to see inside and little effort to remove it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, you can\u2019t even look into the cells and see what is going on,\u201d she said. \u201cWe watch the officers going past, conducting their Title 15 safety checks and scanning (the barcodes), and there is no possible way they looked inside because of tenting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite department claims that there are not enough staff in the jails, Broder said, deputies often were seen watching TV or movies during their shifts. Meanwhile, those in custody are not receiving basic human rights, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single inspection lately has us saying \u2018there are five deputies crowded around watching a TV,\u2019 \u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In May 2024, commissioners observed a deputy walk past a noose hanging in a partially obscured cell, and when they went to report it, they found eight deputies gathered around a monitor watching pornography. A stack of about eight videos was sitting next to the screen.<\/p>\n

To this day, Broder said she still does not know if anyone was disciplined in that case.<\/p>\n

Board pushes reforms<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion<\/a>, authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn, that aimed to reduce jail deaths through several reforms, including increased screenings for contraband, improved and randomized safety checks and increased monitoring of surveillance systems.<\/p>\n

The motion asked the Sheriff\u2019s Department to report back on the work it is doing to improve safety checks specifically. The department has yet to do so, however, and that report is now expected sometime this month.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Hahn called safety checks \u201ccritically important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are done poorly, people can die,\u201d she said. \u201cI am awaiting a report from our sheriff about how his department is working to improve these safety checks and I hope these efforts will go a long way toward preventing deaths in our jails.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Broder and other members of the commission continue to see deputies walking to barcode scanners without so much as glancing into cells, she said.<\/p>\n

More urgency is desperately needed, she said. A missed safety check could mean someone will not get the medical care they need to save their life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a crisis where we should be doing everything we can to address this, instead of pretending everything is fine,\u201d Broder said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staff inside Los Angeles County\u2019s jails performed safety checks to an \u201cexemplary\u201d standard while their supervisors were watching,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,8,138,14665,48,5947,52,51,47,137,50,49,100,7611,5760,24836,200],"class_list":["post-455669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-jails","tag-la","tag-la-county-board-of-supervisors","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news","tag-san-fernando-valley","tag-san-gabriel-valley","tag-socal-watchdog","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}