From [HERE] A scathing report Friday depicted a rogue culture inside the nation's largest county jail system in which deputies abused and humiliated inmates while top management failed to recognize problems or weed out violent officers.

The preliminary findings by investigators for a Los Angeles County commission said a "force first" approach was employed in jails to establish authority over inmates, rather than as a last resort. The investigators concluded that a "code of silence" blocked the county Sheriff's Department, which oversees the jails, from detecting or preventing excessive force used against inmates. The report said deputies have used force against inmates even "when there was no threat at all," and referred to "a culture of aggression among some deputies in the jails."

It also provided a sharply critical critique of Sheriff Lee Baca, describing him as aloof from the trouble festering in his senior ranks, and faulting him for failing to monitor and control how force is used in the jails.