COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

I can still clearly remember a telephone conversation that I had with Newport Beach Republican leader extraordinaire Buck Johns some 14 years ago.

I had lamented that I had found such a mess in the then-Treasurer Bob Citron’s portfolio. “It may not be a good thing to win this election,” I shared.

In response, he stated, in his Arkansas style, “Detect and key-rect.” “Detect and correct” then became a theme of mine since entering public life as an Orange County elected official.

Nearly two years ago, as I was supervisor-elect and waiting to be sworn into the position, an inmate in one of our county jail facilities was brutally killed by fellow inmates under the watch of deputy sheriffs who work in the jail.

This is Orange County, not Gotham City. One should not be in fear for one’s life when in our county jails. How could such a heinous act have occurred?

Flash forward and we find that it occurred because of an upside-down culture with some of our deputy sheriff jailers who allowed inmates to run portions of the Theo Lacy Jail. They only seemed to act like referees and gate keepers, allowing inmates to utilize their pecking order to keep things under control.

Turning a blind eye to physical punishment by inmate leadership upon other inmates is something out of a warped movie, not a civilized and progressive county like ours. This inappropriate behavior was detected.

Now we are correcting it. I was sworn in on Dec. 5, 2006. It took my office, in conjunction with the efforts of the other board offices, the chief executive’s office, the Sheriff’s Department, the District Attorney’s Office and County Counsel this long to get an Office of Independent Review structured, established, and, as of yesterday, staffed with its first director, Stephen Connolly. The process involved meetings over an extended period of time with our partners trying to shape a structure that would be beneficial to all involved. As you can imagine, this idea was not supported by our former sheriff, Michael Carona.

Carona believed that the grand jury was an adequate oversight body. Unfortunately, it takes a new grand jury a few months to get oriented, a few months to investigate matters of importance to them, and then a few months to write their reports. Their 12 months of service flies by, and there is no corporate knowledge as the next grand jury consists of another 19 fresh faces. If you want to have minimal oversight, then the grand jury is your vehicle.

The legal costs for dealing with the death in the jail, including the settlement paid, should be eliminated in the future. We have some 30 lawsuits of a similar nature emanating out of the Sheriff’s Department.

A better form of oversight to reduce this activity was necessary. I can still recall having a lengthy telephone discussion 14 years ago with the foreman of the 1993-1994 Grand Jury, Jim Cooper, about the inappropriateness of then-Treasurer Citron’s investment strategies. That grand jury, a supposed oversight body, did nothing with this information.

I often wondered out loud in stump speeches during my campaign against Citron, “Where is the oversight?” Consequently, within weeks of the filing of bankruptcy protection the 1995 Board of Supervisors established an oversight committee for the County Treasurer’s office.

An Office of Independent Review will be involved in the Sheriff’s Department investigations. It will determine if the investigations conducted by the Internal Affairs Division of the Sheriff’s Department were done in an appropriate and professional manner and whether the dispositions are fair and correct.

Instead of having a department that investigates itself — keeping the analytical activities secret and the results hidden — with a customary conclusion in a brief report that oftentimes states that the, “Investigatee’s conduct was appropriate under the circumstances,” we will have another set of trusted eyes on the proceedings.

We will also have recommendations to the Sheriff’s Department to make modifications that will reduce such incidents from occurring in the future.

This approach has saved Los Angeles County a considerable amount of money in reduced litigation settlements and improved efficiencies, policies and procedures. Like my mother used to tell me, “Sometimes you have to spend a dime to make a quarter.”

I am very pleased that our new Sheriff, Sandra Hutchens, is not only familiar with the purpose and necessity of an Office of Independent Review, but is also a strong proponent of this endeavor. Accordingly, I am very pleased with her enthusiastic support of our new Office of Independent Review Director, Stephen Connolly.

We have a new sheriff. We have new video cameras in the Theo Lacy Jail. We now have an Office of Independent Review. We should be moving in the direction of a new and appropriate culture in our jails. Detect and correct.

JOHN MOORLACH is the Orange County Supervisor.