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Inmate Juan Pablo Reyes was repeatedly punched and kicked in the ribs, back, mouth, and eyes, breaking his eye socket, and leaving him badly bruised and injured.
When he fell, deputies kicked him with steel-toed boots, ignoring his cries. They then stripped him naked, forced him to walk up and down a hallway in full view of other prisoners, then put him in a cell to be sexually assaulted by other inmates "off and on for a day."
"Deputies repeatedly pit inmates against other inmates, using them as pawns to carry out acts of violence."
Besides numerous forms of abuse, deputies terrorize inmates by verbal threats. The environment is pervasive, out-of-control, and longstanding. As a result:
"Today (September 28), the ACLU/SC is filing, with the federal court in Rutherford v. Baca, seventy sworn declarations from civilian eyewitnesses, former prisoners, and current prisoners who have witnessed deputy-on-inmate assaults, and threats of violence, been assaulted by deputies or both, at the time it is publishing this report."
A Final Comment
LA County prison hell is replicated across America. Cruel and unusual treatment persists. Cover-up is standard procedure. So is indifference. Legal restraints are ignored.
Out of sight and mind behind bars leaves nonviolent inmates scared for life. Some never recover. No one gets out unscathed.
America's criminal justice system falls short of meeting international human rights standards. Systemic torture in LA County is one example, one of the worst.
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