There hasn’t been a “substantiated” allegation of sexual abuse by employees in opposition to an inmate within the nation’s largest jail system since 2021.
At first look, the statistic — based mostly on Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division information — would possibly seem to point {that a} federal regulation referred to as the Jail Rape Elimination Act has lastly achieved its mission greater than twenty years after it was enacted by Congress.
However a broad array of native oversight officers and advocacy teams are elevating eyebrows over the declare, and bringing new scrutiny to how the Sheriff’s Division investigates allegations of sexual abuse made by inmates in opposition to their jailers.
L.A. County incarcerates about 13,000 individuals — together with roughly 1,500 ladies — all through its community of jails watched over by sheriff’s deputies.
Sheriff’s Division data present that between January 2022 and September 2025, inmates filed 592 allegations of abuse and harassment in opposition to employees. None had been deemed “substantiated,” which the Sheriff’s Division defines on its web site as “an allegation that was investigated and decided to have occurred.”
The suggestion that there has not been sufficient proof to assist even one alleged incident by employees in opposition to an inmate in almost 4 years has struck some tasked with monitoring the Sheriff’s Division as absurd.
“When you’ve gotten this many complaints and you’ve got zero which might be based, there’s something incorrect with the method,” mentioned George B. Newhouse, a member of the L.A. Sheriff Civilian Oversight Fee.
L.A. County’s Workplace of Inspector Basic and advocacy teams, together with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and Peace Over Violence, additionally shared issues concerning the lack of substantiated allegations throughout a Nov. 4 digital dialogue of the federal Jail Rape Elimination Act, or PREA. The regulation was enacted in 2003 in an effort to scale back widespread sexual abuse behind bars.
In 2012, the federal authorities instituted a algorithm generally known as PREA requirements, which laid out steps that jail and jail operators are required to take to stop and scale back sexual abuse and harassment between inmates and employees.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Division Sgt. Ryan Vaccaro mentioned the division “has zero tolerance for sexual abuse and sexual harassment.” He added that month-to-month city corridor conferences are held in jails to teach inmates about PREA and document any questions and complaints they’ve concerning the federal requirements.
“Our crew is devoted to making sure our residents know now we have a zero-tolerance coverage and know get assist after they want it,” he mentioned. “All PREA allegations are documented and processed promptly, completely and objectively.”
Throughout a public assembly final month, Hans Johnson, the chair of the Civilian Oversight Fee, pressed John Barkley, assistant director and PREA coordinator on the Sheriff’s Division, to elucidate the shortage of substantiated reviews, and the way lengthy it sometimes takes for allegations to be investigated.
Dozens of the harassment and abuse claims recognized within the sheriff’s division data are listed as “pending,” which the division defines on its web site as an “allegation nonetheless underneath investigation.”
“It form of beggars credulity that that variety of complaints might be raised and that none might be substantiated,” Johnson mentioned. “It’s only a pink flag.”
Barkley mentioned “each case is investigated” and located to be both “substantiated, unsubstantiated or unfounded.” He mentioned “each state of affairs is completely different. The factor that we’re mandated to do is to do the investigation promptly and to do it completely.”
In a press release a colleague learn aloud on the Nov. 4 discussion board, Portland, Ore., resident Frank Mendoza mentioned that whereas he was incarcerated at L.A.’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility in 2006, “officers on the jail repeatedly harassed me as a result of I used to be overtly homosexual” and one beat and raped him in his cell.
“I used to be then left within the cell bare, bloodied, and utterly humiliated,” Mendoza mentioned in his assertion. “I attempted to report what occurred. First, I informed the officer on the subsequent shift who discovered me on the ground of my cell, and all he did was order me to dress. That was the norm. Officers didn’t inform on each other.”
Mendoza alleged he wasn’t supplied medical remedy or examined for accidents attributable to the assault. When he reported the rape, he discovered that “and not using a forensic examination, it was unattainable to construct a felony case.”
Now, Mendoza provides voice to different individuals who have been victims of sexual abuse and harassment whereas incarcerated by means of his advocacy work as a member of Simply Detention Worldwide’s Survivor Council.
“It’s clear the county nonetheless has loads of work to do to make sure the protection of individuals in detention,” he mentioned. “On the identical time, the truth that such a listening to is going on is proof to me of a tradition shift and that individuals are listening.”
The Sheriff’s Division additionally tracks inmate-on-inmate allegations, which accounted for 296 reviews of sexual abuse or harassment between January 2022 and June 2025. Of these, 28 had been categorised as “substantiated.”
The numbers have spiked since then, with 82 inmate-on-inmate allegations between July and September 2025. Of these claims, the division deemed 5 involving sexual abuse to be “substantiated,” together with one other 5 claims of sexual harassment.
Throughout that three-month interval, inmates made 121 sexual abuse and harassment claims in opposition to employees, none of which have been recognized as “substantiated” by the Sheriff’s Division.
Arthur Calloway, co-vice-chair of the Civilian Oversight Fee, requested on the October assembly whether or not the sheriff’s division might be trusted to analyze inmate claims in opposition to its personal staff.
He added that, “if it was all goal, there can be some substantiated ones really to trickle out” from claims filed since January 2022.
Barkley responded that “a lot of these” unsubstantiated outcomes are “dictated on whether or not the D.A. takes the case.” He added that “if the D.A. decides that they’re not going to prosecute the case with inmate-on-inmate, then it will be an unsubstantiated.”
The L.A. County district lawyer’s workplace mentioned in a press release that the Sheriff’s Division first conducts inside investigations of allegations of felony exercise. Then, the division “might current their investigation to our Justice System Integrity Division (JSID) to find out whether or not felony prices must be filed,” the assertion mentioned.
The Sheriff’s Division may decide “to self-discipline their worker administratively along with, or in lieu of, in search of felony prices,” the assertion mentioned.
The prosecutor’s workplace famous that substantiated and unsubstantiated are phrases utilized by the Sheriff’s Division for “administrative functions,” not authorized outcomes.
“JSID evaluations all circumstances introduced to them by regulation enforcement utilizing the usual of whether or not prices could be proved past an inexpensive doubt,” the D.A.’s workplace mentioned.
The Sheriff’s Division mentioned in a press release that sexual abuse circumstances are investigated internally and that when they’re “decided to satisfy the weather of a criminal offense,” they “are submitted to the District Lawyer’s Workplace.”
The division mentioned that since January 2022, 4 such circumstances “resulted in administrative investigations and 5 had been/are being investigated by” the division’s Inner Prison Investigations Bureau. None of these have been deemed “substantiated.”
“Substantiated allegations, typically require cooperation and a few type of proof, which might make them tougher,” the Sheriff’s Division mentioned. “Nevertheless, unsubstantiated allegations are extra widespread as a result of it has a decrease threshold.”
Dara Williams, assistant inspector basic, mentioned it “can be significantly better if all complaints had been investigated by individuals who had been outdoors the chain of command.”
In any other case, she mentioned, when sheriff’s division staff are those figuring out “what triggers an investigation, there may be some bias.”
Inspector Basic Max Huntsman informed The Instances that he believes the Sheriff’s Division is “not in compliance with PREA in lots of senses,” corresponding to its inside insurance policies and the bodily state of its getting older correctional amenities.
On the public assembly final month, Barkley, the PREA coordinator on the Sheriff’s Division, defined {that a} sergeant should document each sexual abuse and harassment allegation in a devoted database by the top of the shift when it’s acquired. After that, he mentioned, the allegation is robotically despatched to sheriff’s leaders and the inspector basic’s workplace.
On the conclusion of the assembly, Johnson, the chair of the Civilian Oversight Fee, referred to as on the Sheriff’s Division to take steps to make sure it’s conducting truthful and thorough evaluations of all inmate allegations.
“It’s unacceptable to haven’t any substantiated circumstances reported,” he mentioned.
