By Lauren Smith
LOS ANGELES – Sheriff Alex Villanueva and Assistant Sheriff Bruce Chase updated the conditions of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County Jails at Thursday’s Civilian Oversight Commission Meeting, but they received major pushback from the community, including accusations of “gaslighting” the public.
Sheriff Villanueva boldly claimed that the efforts taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through LA County jails have been “successful” and that when, compared to other counties, LA is an “anomaly.”
He stated that there are currently 39 symptomatic positive cases of COVID-19 and 17 asymptomatic positive cases, noting the current population is 14,885, with 3,346 waiting to be transferred to a state prison.
Sheriff Villanueva also bragged that the LA jails are “islands” and it would be safer inside the jail from COVID-19 than it is in the community. Yet, data clearly shows that prison and jails across the country serve as petri dishes and hotbeds for COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Sheriff Villanueva stated that there have been 12 COVID-19 related deaths, but dismissed three of those as having had “other issues” such as “cancer” and a history of “heart attacks.”
Sheriff Villanueva maintained that it is difficult to enforce the incarcerated population to wear face masks because, “There’s a practical issue, too. The people that are inside the jail 
system are not there because they are known to adhere to the rule of law.”
He then proceeded to remain silent for nearly all questions from the commission members and deferred them to Assistant Sheriff Chase.
Chase also said that there is a “relatively low infection rate” in the jails, at an 8.2 percent infection rate compared to the entire county’s 15.3 percent rate.
Chase further explained the jail tests every new intake, every person who exhibits symptoms, and the medically vulnerable population, yet they do not test people before they are released into the community.
Chase announced the jails have received their first batch of vaccines and began vaccinating both employees and the incarcerated population Tuesday.
Commission Chair Lael Rubin questioned the safety of transporting the incarcerated population to and from court and asked to learn more about expanding video conferences.
Sheriff Villanueva jumped back into the conversation and admitted that there has been pushback from the Public Defender Office to expand video conferencing. But, he argued, the Sheriff’s Office needs additional funding to build the infrastructure necessary to make video conferencing accessible to the entire incarcerated population.
Multiple public commenters expressed extreme frustration over Sheriff Villanueva advocating for more funding to expand video conferencing, with one speaker noting the Sheriff’s Office has “3 billion dollars…already. They don’t need any more money.”
Another public commenter echoed those sentiments, stating, “If there is money to provide riot gear and helicopters and armies of deputies for non-violent direct actions, if there is money for LASD to harass, harm, and murder our communities and then cover up those murders, there is money to provide remote video access to court hearings for people who need them.”
A third commenter even provided an example of “what wasteful money is,” claiming “I have in front of me right now a personalized water bottle from the homicide department of LASD…it has a bulldog, it’s got the number 187 on it, and says LASD. What a waste of money.”
Nearly all 15 public commenters raised concern over Sheriff Villanueva’s deference to Assistant Sheriff Chase.
Some of these comments consisted of statements such as “he appears to know nothing,” “he’s had to defer to Mr. Chase to answer every single question asked regarding COVID,” “he can’t answer the questions himself,” and lastly, “his appearance was a laugh, he couldn’t answer any of the questions, [he kept] passing off questions to Mr. Chase, why did he even bother to show up?”
In addition, the same public commenters expressed outrage at Sheriff Villanueva’s use of language. Multiple commenters called his language “unacceptable,” “manipulative,” and one commenter stated that Sheriff Villanueva was “gaslighting” the public.
Unfortunately Sheriff Villanueva did not hear the public comments because he claimed he needed to attend a different meeting—however, Assistant Sheriff Bruce Chase remained on the call to listen to each public comment.
Lauren Smith is a recent graduate from UC Davis. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology. She is from San Diego, California.
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