Los Angeles Jail Suicide Points to Men’s Central Jail Deputies “Cheating The System”

In a sad turn of events, an inmate committed suicide inside the Los Angeles County Men’s Central jail when he was left “unchecked” for a period longer than regulated.

According to the L.A. Board of Supervisors report, his death has shed a light on two Los Angeles Sheriff Deputies who allegedly “cheated” the bar code system to avoid regular checking of inmate cells. They were later fired for their actions. Additionally, another 8 deputies were disciplined. 

This scandal by Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies, being called ”Scannergate”, was discovered after an inmate hung himself in March 2009.  This particular inmate was on “high-security” watch.

A falsified log was found by investigators at that time, showing that deputies had scanned all points within 35 seconds. However, this would be an impossible feat in the enormous Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail as the checkpoints were too far apart to be scanned that quickly.

Internal Affair investigators also found a “cheat sheet” with bar codes on the desk of a deputy, revealing the scheme which had spread like a disease across the jail.

Michael Gennaco, head of the Office of Independent Review (the Sheriff Department’s watchdog) stated, “The scanner-cheating cases demonstrate a disappointing lapse in integrity on the part of involved deputies… The suicide demonstrates the ‘real consequences’ of such actions.”

According to the report, a deputy who admitted to being behind the scheme apparently used bar code duplication software to create the cheat sheets. Last year, eight other inmates committed suicide.

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