老澳门开奖结果

Less than two weeks ago, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was indignant.

Called to the carpet by an 老澳门开奖结果 report documenting dozens of allegations of brutal abuse of inmates at the Los Angeles County Jail at the hands of sheriff鈥檚 deputies, Baca held an angry press conference in which he and accused the 老澳门开奖结果 of engaging in 鈥渉yperbole鈥� aimed at winning a quick headline.

But today he is singing a very different tune.

Under intense media criticism and mounting political pressure, that 鈥渨e need to be focusing on the issue of respect for the inmates,鈥� a day after to investigate the serious allegations the 老澳门开奖结果 brought forth in its report.

. Burned by the glare of the national media鈥檚 spotlight, his willingness to conduct an internal investigation, led by hand-picked commanders and lieutenants, is not nearly enough.

For years, top brass in the sheriff鈥檚 department have abdicated their constitutional obligation to maintain humane conditions inside the jail, and Baca himself has stone-walled persistent efforts by the 老澳门开奖结果 to bring the horrors that occur regularly behind the jail鈥檚 closed doors into daylight.

As Margaret Winter, associate director of the 老澳门开奖结果 National Prison Project, put it to the New York Times, 鈥淭he time has long passed when Baca could be the positive agent of change. We鈥檝e been bringing these problems to him for years, and it should have been overwhelmingly obvious to him. What he鈥檚 doing now is running for cover.鈥�

A far-reaching and independent investigation of all aspects of the Los Angeles County jail is urgently needed, and that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e asking you to join us in calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the Los Angeles County Jail system and put an end to the unconstitutional and unconscionable abuse of the jail's prisoners.

But this will also take action by the Obama administration. We need the hammer of a federal injunction. A completely independent monitor needs to be appointed by a federal judge, someone with the authority to track down the root causes of the longstanding culture of deputy violence in the jails and who can implement and carry out a plan to fix what ails the largest jail system in the nation.

Now is the time for desperately-needed sweeping reform.

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