Contending that allegations of prisoner mistreatment have “shattered” public faith in the Los Angeles County jail system, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved on Tuesday an outside oversight committee and measures that could potentially overhaul the sheriff’s use-of-force policy.<\/p>\n
The moves followed weeks of reports in The Times and other organizations detailing allegations of abuse of inmates and a code of silence within the Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the nation’s largest jail system. The FBI is also investigating potential misconduct.<\/p>\n
One motion, written by Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas, creates a seven-person committee selected by the board to review the jails and make recommendations to fix any problems. The committee would partly rely on a support staff of volunteer lawyers from private firms and would be funded by money normally used to pay legal judgments and damages.<\/p>\n