The Dungeon: Inside Men’s Central Jail

Crimes of the Times

L.A. Times Studios

Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles, La Times, Los Angeles Times, True Crime, Chris Goffard, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 42.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A young FBI agent named Leah Marx arrives in Los Angeles and receives a tip in 2010 about brutal conditions at Men’s Central Jail downtown. Such complaints have gone nowhere for years, since they pit the allegations of inmates against the word of jail deputies. But she finds informants, including a wily bank robber, Anthony Brown, who is facing life in prison and is willing to help. She reflects on a family tragedy that informs her perspective and fuels her sense of mission. Meanwhile, an ambitious young jailer named James Sexton works his way through the ranks, trying to overcome his image as a “brass baby,” the son of a prominent law officer, while navigating a complicated agency where loyalty is a prime value. That jail was notorious for violence and neglect, and outside investigations had rarely gained traction. By entering Men’s Central Jail, the FBI was challenging a department that had long resisted oversight. The series is reported and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Goffard, best known for his work on Dirty John. Topics in this episode include: Operation Pandora’s Box, Anthony Brown informant, James Sexton, Los Angeles County Jail scandal, FBI investigation, Sheriff Lee Baca.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	These cases are incredibly tough.
0:04.0	This is as raw as it gets.
0:06.0	It's like LA County Jail.
0:07.0	Something is always an existential threat.
0:09.0	Do you want to catch all the crooked deputies I have?
0:12.0	It sounds like there's something going on.
0:14.0	I would not have subjected the FBI to me saying I don't trust them.
0:19.0	That is unacceptable to me. I told every inmate before we started, I don't trust them. That is unacceptable to me.
0:26.3	I told every inmate before we started, I don't care what you're here for. I don't want to talk about what you're here for.
0:29.2	Don't tell me about your case because I don't want to hear it.
0:48.0	When FBI Special Agent Leah Marks began paying regular visits to Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, it did not immediately raise any alarm among the people who ran the jail.
0:53.0	It was not unusual for a federal agent to show up to interview inmates.
0:59.5	Most of the time, jailers just looked at her federal ID and let her in without asking why she was there.
1:04.5	If they did, she said she was investigating a human trafficking case.
1:10.6	It was a good sounding story, believable, perfect to deter further questions. You say a man is always right in his own eye.
1:16.6	It was a little bit of a shock.
1:18.6	Men's Central Jail is very old.
1:21.6	I walked in and after you go through the Salliport,
1:24.6	there were buckets on the floor from the leaks all over the
1:28.5	ceiling that you just kind of had to walk around and walk through and you don't get a lot of
1:33.4	guidance. You just walk in. Leah Marks was in her late 20s and relatively new to the FBI, just
1:38.9	beyond her rookie year. She was here to secretly investigate claims that deputies were brutalizing people in their custody.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from L.A. Times Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of L.A. Times Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.