L.A. County Sheriff, Lee Baca, Agrees to Prison Abuse Reforms; Won't Resign

After allegations of severe physical abuse in the nation's largest jail system, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Wednesday that he would implement all the reforms recommended by an independent commission, but that he would not step down.

"I couldn't have written them better myself," said Baca in a press conference at the Men's Central Jail. "We will be a stronger and safer jail."

Baca has been blamed for the use of excessive force in the jails, as well as extreme overcrowding and lack of oversight. Detractors claim he ignored complaints for years and overlooked the actions of his under-sheriff, Paul Tanaka, who investigators say fostered the use of violence and made it known that deputies would not be penalized for excessive force against inmates.

Baca, 70, who has been in charge of the 19,000 inmates in the system since his election in 1998, says he intends to stay on until his constituents say otherwise.

"You know, I'm not a person that thinks about quitting on anything," Baca said. "The voters had the grace to give me the job and the voters will have the grace to take it away."

He also has no plans to discipline Tanaka, or anyone else under his command.

Baca had been resistant to the 63 reforms outlined in the report by the Citizen's Commission of Jail Violence, including increased oversight by third-party watchdogs, harsher penalties for deputies who violate inmates' rights, and a restructuring of the chain of command in the jails.

The commission called the Men's Central Jail an "antiquated, dungeon-like facility," and blamed Baca's lack of leadership for the poor conditions.

"If a chief executive officer in private business had remained in the dark or ignored problems plaguing one of the company's primary services for years, that company's board of directors likely would not have hesitated to replace the CEO," wrote the commission.

But after the report was made public, Baca embraced the results, taking full responsibility for the institutional failures that led to abuse.