Sheriff Lee Baca has a reputation as a compassionate intellectual, which makes it hard to understand how he could run a brutal jail system. This week's L.A. Weekly cover story attempts to make sense of that disconnect by getting inside his unusual mind.
“Once exposed, fathers appear to be unable to face the consequences of their incestuous behavior under the criminal justice model of accountability,” Baca argues. “Perhaps a non-penal institution form punishment-therapy (sic) is more appropriate for offenders.”
It's also not clear why Baca believes that it would be easier to commit fathers to treatment facilities than to state prison. Both approaches would require evidence and proof.
He completed the dissertation and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1992. Once he was elected sheriff, 6 years later, he did not make any attempt to implement his ideas about incest cases. Some ideas are too far outside the box, even for him.
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