General Interest: A Discussion with Senior Deputy Randy Bell and Deputy Bart Lanni (LA County Sheriff's Department)

Moderated by Visiting Professor Sharon Dolovich

Monday, November 19, 2007
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Pound 200

Prisons and jails can be dangerous places. How to protect the most vulnerable inmates from physical and sexual violence is thus a central corrections challenge. For the past 20 years, the LA County Jail has sought to protect two of the most vulnerable inmate groups "gay male and transgender prisoners” by segregating them from the general population. This segregation unit is now widely viewed by inmates as the safest place to be housed in the LA County Jail.

Officers Bell and Lanni have been running the unit for over a decade. They will explain how they decide who belongs in the unit and how the unit operates, and will also discuss the challenges of running a segregation unit for gay male and transgender prisoners in one of the biggest jail facilities in the United States (including how they handle the many straight inmates who try to pass as gay to get in).