The inspector general's office reviewed 6,426 incidents that had been recorded by California prison officials in 2018 and found “only minimal improvement” in getting guards to comply with use-of-force policies since the last review in 2017.

“Whatever training they're using to reinforce the policy isn't working,” said Don Specter, an attorney with the Prison Law Office. “There's very little accountability.”

Specter’s firm has been tracking use of force on California inmates for 25 years.

“The good news is that when they review the use of force they figure out that there were violations of policy,” Specter said. “The bad news is, they don't do anything about it. So there's no improvement from year-to-year.”

The inspector general found that half of all uses of force involved chemical agents, such as pepper spray. Officers used physical restraint and control holds a third of the time, and resorted to rubber bullets, batons and Tasers 19% of the time.

Specter was most concerned with the inspector general’s finding that many of the incidents in question involved inmates who were confined to their cells and didn’t pose an imminent threat.

The inspector general’s review also found that prison staff often did not properly follow procedures for investigating inmate complaints by “completing untimely interviews, not recording inmate injuries, completing interviews in a non-confidential setting, or conducting interviews even though they were involved in the incident.”

Prisons With the Most Uses of Force A third of the force incidents reviewed by the inspector general occurred at just five of the 33 state prisons, all of which are high security: Salinas Valley State Prison (500)

California State Prison, Sacramento (495)

Kern Valley State Prison (484)

California State Prison, Los Angeles County (421)

California State Prison, Corcoran (420)

“The department is supposed to take pictures of people who allege excessive use of force or who are subject to uses of force within 48 hours so that you can document the extent of the injuries, if any,” said Specter. “But they fail to do that in a timely manner as well, and that eliminates some pretty powerful evidence.”

Prison officials were still evaluating the findings Tuesday, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Vicky Waters.

“Use of force is sometimes necessary when dealing with incidents that may pose a safety and security risk for both inmates and staff,” Waters wrote in an email. “It is a priority for our department that all staff follow policies, protocols and procedures, and we will continue to collaborate with the Office of the Inspector General to ensure full compliance.”

The inspector general recommended that the state prison system require all its correctional officers to attend use of force training to ensure compliance with the department’s policy, and suggested the department impose discipline of increasing severity against supervising and participating staff who violated policy when an inmate was in a controlled space, such as a cell.