Warning, this podcast contains explicit language and details acts of violence.

Listener discretion is advised.

Over the past few months, we've learned about the origins of deputy gangs, how they operate,

why they target people they are sworn to protect, and how they are protected from consequences.

But deputy gangs are just a piece of the problem.

The psychological abuse, physical assaults,

and killings of LA County residents

are not limited to deputy gang members.

The department and the criminal justice system

are set up in a way that facilitates this behavior and allows it to go unpunished.

This is a tradition of violence, a history of deputy gangs inside of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

In Los Angeles County, thousands of people make their way through the county jail system each year. Like other jurisdictions, most of the people in custody have not been

convicted of a crime. They are there because they cannot afford to bail out.

The L.A. County jails are staffed by sheriff's deputies, many of whom are fresh from the academy.

Typically, the jails are their first assignment after they graduate.

For years, the jails have had reputations of being hotbeds of abuse that persists today.

I think there's this general sense in the larger community that jails make us safe and that if somebody cannot post bail,

then we need to make sure they're kept in jail until they're convicted.

And there are no studies that bear that out. In fact, as you can imagine,

it's largely the opposite. When somebody's put in jail, it's an incredible disruption. Even if you're

able to post bail, say a couple weeks later, you've missed work for two weeks, so who knows if you have a job?

You've been away from your family for two weeks. Who knows what's happened to them in that time?

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