老澳门开奖结果

John Horton was held in solitary confinement in the Los Angeles County Men鈥榮 Central Jail following his arrest for drug possession. He committed suicide.

In the days leading up to his death in March 2009, jail staff noted that Mr. Horton was despondent. His cell was a dimly-lit, windowless, solid-front box the size of a closet. His body was already stiff by the time security staff discovered him hanging from a noose in his cell, with his hands bound 鈥� one of eight successful apparent suicides in the L.A. County jails in the past calendar year.

Shortly after the suicide, the 老澳门开奖结果 received a letter from an inmate in an adjacent cell describing Horton鈥檚 obviously disturbed behavior and repeated suicidal gestures, which deputies had witnessed in the days before his death. The 老澳门开奖结果 demanded that the County investigate.

The Office of Independent Review (OIR) for Los Angeles County into the 22-year-old鈥檚 death, and recently released its explosive and damning findings. These findings underscore the urgency of the , where as many as 50 percent of the detainees are mentally ill.

confirmed that the sheriff鈥檚 deputies knew Horton was despondent. Deputies were tasked with checking on him at frequent intervals, but during the hours leading up to his death, the requisite checks were not made. The deputy in charge of supervising Horton had been largely absent from his post: He went to the staff gym to work out, he took a shower, he even went to a nearby restaurant for a 鈥渃how run鈥� with his supervisor鈥檚 approval. The OIR report noted that the subsequent autopsy on Horton showed internal bruising from injuries incurred before the hanging.

In a cover-up after the suicide, at least 10 deputies engaged in a deliberate, systematic faking of surveillance logs. According to the report, the deputies created fake bar codes to circumvent a jail policy requiring deputies to document their periodic 鈥渨elfare checks鈥� on inmates, by scanning bar code plaques mounted at each end of every cell row. Ironically, the scanning system had been implemented to deter 鈥溾�檃fter the fact鈥� efforts to doctor welfare check logs after something 鈥榖ad鈥� such as suicide had occurred鈥�, according to the report.

The deputies鈥� actions 鈥渨ere overt and premeditated and demonstrated a wholesale failure鈥� to carry out their duty 鈥渢o diligently watch over and provide safety and security for the inmates under his or her supervision鈥� 鈥� a failure, the report noted, which might have facilitated Horton鈥檚 suicide. The OIR report concluded that during its nine years of oversight of L.A. County Jails, it had found evidence of a 鈥渟ub environment in which outlier cultures can fester and cause deputies to lose their way and sense of mission.鈥�

The OIR report substantiates similar findings in an annual report on conditions in the jails released in May 2010 by the 老澳门开奖结果 of Southern California and the 老澳门开奖结果 National Prison Project, which serve as official monitors of the L.A. County jails.