“Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca’s recent guilty plea to lying to federal investigators about abuse in his jails provides a rare glimpse into America’s correctional institutions, if one knows where to look. Baca’s conviction — and that of more than a dozen other Sheriff personnel — isn’t just an idiosyncratic tale of the demise of a lawman and his posse, but rather an example of how institutionalization systematically erodes the moral code of jail employees. That’s why, in addition to watchdogging conditions of confinement, we need to bring about an end to mass incarceration.
“My own experience running Washington, D.C.’s juvenile corrections agency gave me a front row seat to this phenomenon.”