THE NATION’S LARGEST JAIL SYSTEM
Why We All Should Care About the Election of the Man Who Will Lead It
By John A. Romero
My sixth grade teacher predicted with great confidence that jail was in my future. Seventeen years later, I found myself doing time in a Los Angeles jail. If Mr. Zimpleman only knew that his prediction had come true! Truth be told, my time behind bars was not a criminal sentence, but an 18-month tour as a jail sergeant. In 1972, Los Angeles may as well have been another planet. Then Santa Fe cable television and my mom’s budget both stretched far enough to bring Los Angeles to my living room and the world shrank. Since then, technology has continued to make the world smaller and smaller. The implication is that opinions, trends, and people can move around the globe at breakneck speed, and what happens in Los Angeles and other major cities — matters.
Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the United States. Compared to the individual populations of the 50 states, Los Angeles County would easily rank among the top ten. If it were a country, Los Angeles County would be well into the top one-third of sovereign nation states. By size and by influence, Los Angeles County carries significant weight in health and wellbeing of the region, the state, and the nation. Still, among the ten million residents of Los Angeles County, only half are eligible to vote. Among the eligible voters in last June’s primary, only about 13 percent actually cast ballots.
As the crow flies, my house is only a mile or two from the Los Angeles County line in a community renowned for peace and tranquility. That invisible county line precludes me from voting in Los Angeles County elections, but it cannot keep me from participating in the process. Los Angeles County and especially its sheriff’s department and jail system have a tremendous influence on my chosen field — law enforcement. Not participating was never really an option.
While I don’t personally worry much about going to jail these days, every single person whom I have ever known to do time in jail has been locked up in Los Angeles County. Some would say that prisoners deserve nothing but a tent and a can of Spam. But we should care about prisoners, not just because they are all sons and daughters, or friends and family, but because they are human beings and especially because they will each be back in society someday.
Once in the city jail, I was summoned to oversee the intake of a young man who, despite his small stature, had fought with the arresting officers. Uniforms were torn and dirty, and the tension in the booking area was palpable. One of the officers suggested that I place the arrestee in a cellblock with known adversaries. It was a teachable moment. I responded, “You do realize that if he gets hurt or killed, you and I both go to prison? No thanks.” But it was more than avoiding prison; it was about treating people humanely, and it was about treating that prisoner in a way that would not compromise his encounters with officers later that night or later that decade on the street. The next officer to encounter this man could be hundreds or thousands of miles from Los Angeles County.
Radicalization and violent extremism in prison systems were cited as serious problems in a publicly available Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Bulletin. Prisons and jails will never change a person from bad to good; but I am convinced that they can tip the balance of a person who is on the fence between bad and good. This is why people hundreds or thousands of miles away from Los Angeles County should care about the nation’s largest jail system and the man who will lead it.
California’s public safety realignment law, while intended to address prison overcrowding, requires many prisoners to serve their sentences entirely in a county jail system. Therefore, radicalization and violent extremism must be viewed from the perspective of county jail systems and not just state prisons. Sheriffs must have healthy partnerships with local, state, and federal law enforcement.
In a widely publicized trial, several Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies were convicted for interfering with a federal investigation of corruption and abuses under color of authority. While the corruption involved only a tiny fraction of the Sheriff’s Department, there was evidence of corruption at the very top of the organization. As a result, the FBI chose to keep then Sheriff Lee Baca in the dark.
The next Los Angeles County Sheriff will not likely solve world hunger or usher in world peace, but that individual had better get along with the FBI. The next sheriff must be widely respected in the community-at-large, in law enforcement circles in general, and, specifically, in the homeland security enterprise.
On November 4, 2014, Los Angeles County voters will elect either Paul Tanaka or Jim McDonnell. The last two elected Sheriffs each served over 15 years; so it is important that the Los Angeles County voters get this one right. If the June primary serves as an indicator, Jim McDonnell will win by a landslide. But a landslide prediction can have unintended consequences. We might call it voter apathy, but it is really a phenomenon of group behavior wherein voters see no risk or benefit in uncontested or one-sided races.
On November 4, 2014, every vote is important. Despite McDonnell’s phenomenal lead, there are still two candidates in the race. If you are an eligible Los Angeles County voter, get informed before you vote. If you are not a Los Angeles County voter, this election should still matter to you. The fine men and women of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department need your support whether you can vote or not. Start with some viral marketing of your own, and let’s set a record for high voter turn out on November 4, 2014.
