Skip navigation

Articles by David Reutter

California Prisoners Unite in Hunger Strike to Protest SHU

Official with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) devised a plan in 2006 that aimed to chop the head off of prison gangs. What CDCR did not consider was that the gang leaders it indefinitely isolated on the Short Corridor of the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican ...

Deputy’s Lawsuit Claims Racial Gangs Control Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office Jails

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) has white racist gangs operating at its highest levels, threatening the lives of deputies who exposed it, and labeling them as “race traitors” and “snitches.” Those claims are included in a federal civil action filed by two LASD deputies.

Michael Rathbun and James ...

Colorado Prison Policy of Withholding Good Time Challenged

The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) has “a policy of routinely refusing to subtract previously credited good time as well as some previously credited earned time from inmates’ sentences despite the fact that the inmate has earned those credits,” charges a federal civil rights complaint. The suit, which may become ...

California Overmedicates Prisoners with Psychotropic Drugs

California prison mental health care workers are practicing “defensive medicine” and overmedicating their patients with psychotropic medications. Fear of triggering a lawsuit or federal court order drives the practice, admits a former top prison official.

An Associated Press report found spending on psychotropic drugs in California prisons greatly exceeds that ...

Aramark to Provide Heart-Healthy Meals at San Francisco Jail

The City of San Francisco negotiated a new contract with its food vendor, Aramark Correction Services, to provide a “heart-healthy menu” for prisoners at the San Francisco County Jail (SFCJ). The new fare, hopefully, will diminish the need for prisoners to prepare meals from the snack food laden jail commissary. ...

Widespread Corruption in L.A. County Jails Leads to Federal Investigation, Indictments

by David M. Reutter and Rod L. Bower

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy David “Lee” Baca faces up to six months in prison after pleading guilty on February 10, 2016 to charges that he lied to federal investigators in an attempt to cover up a conspiracy to thwart an FBI probe into brutality and excessive use of force by deputies in the county’s sprawling jail system.

In a plea agreement filed in federal court, Baca admitted to twice lying about his involvement in hiding a prisoner-turned-informant from FBI agents. In fact, according to the agreement, Baca ordered the prisoner, Anthony Brown, to be moved from facility to facility under different names, and placed then-Undersheriff Paul Tanaka in charge of executing that plan, dubbed “Operation Pandora’s Box.”

Baca also acknowledged that he lied when he told investigators he was unaware that his subordinates planned to contact FBI Special Agent Leah Marx at her home. Deputies confronted Marx and, in an effort to intimidate her, falsely threatened her with arrest. Baca admitted that he directed the deputies to approach Marx, telling them they should “do everything but put handcuffs” on her, according to his plea agreement.

The guilty plea marks a stunning ...

Exonerated Illinois Man Receives $7.6 Million Settlement

The City of Chicago paid $7,625,000 to settle a civil rights action brought by a former prisoner who was wrongfully convicted of rape and exonerated by DNA evidence.

Dean Cage was 27 years old when he was arrested for the November 1994 rape of a 15-year-old girl as she walked ...

Settlement, Judgment End Postcard-only Policies at Two Kansas Jails

A settlement agreement was reached in a class-action lawsuit challenging a postcard-only mail policy at Kansas’ Wyandotte County Adult Detention Center (WCADC), while a federal district court awarded damages to a pro se prisoner challenging a similar policy at a jail in Johnson County.

The settlement involving WCADC provides that ...

$250,000 Settlement in Ohio Detainee’s Jail Suicide

Officials in Lorain County, Ohio have settled a lawsuit stemming from a pretrial detainee’s suicide death.

When police arrived at Cheryl Sweeney’s home on May 26, 2012 because her husband had passed away, they arrested her on an outstanding warrant for failure to pay fines. During the booking process at ...

Tennessee: Theft, Misconduct Charges Pending Against Former Jail Supervisor, Son

A father and son have been charged with misconduct and theft for inappropriate conduct with prisoners and double-billing supervision over a work crew from a Tennessee jail.

According to Police Chief Mark Sirois, the Johnson City Police Department began an internal investigation in October 2012 involving prisoner work details. The ...