By Michelle Gomez

There have been many reports and cases about police brutality in jails where officials have  taken advantage of inmates.

Because the people who are convicted of a crime have limited rights in jail, two L.A. sheriff’s deputies decided that they wanted to take advantage of that by showing an inmate a lesson without having real justification for beating him. They wanted to teach him a lesson that if he disrespects and officer, he would get beat.

One of the deputies told another deputy official that the inmate had left his cell and the other deputy decided he wanted to give him a lesson by beating him up where no one would see. When they were done beating up the inmate, all the deputies met privately to falsify reports that would have justified the beating.

The deputies kicked, punched, and pepper sprayed the inmate in a locked hallway where there were no surveillance cameras. One deputy testified that he punched the inmate several times but then stopped because the inmate was not resisting. He mentioned that the inmate was laying on the ground throughout the assault screaming and crying. This clearly shows how the officials had no justification for abusing an inmate.

Recently, the two officials were found guilty of beating an inmate at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility and falsifying the reports in order to cover up this abuse.

Because of this abuse, two deputies were found guilty and were charged for violating the inmate’s rights, taking away his civil rights under color of authority and falsifying the reports. They were sentenced to forty years in federal prison.

After a wide-ranging FBI investigation, federal authorities have found and convicted 21 current or former officials due to corruption and abuse in the county jails.

There should be more surveillance in these jails in order to make sure that every single person is protected against this kind of abuse. People should be protected even if they committed a crime because even though their rights are limited there are still some rights that every single person is entitled to.