The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department needs top-to-bottom reforms to fix failures of leadership by Sheriff Lee Baca, who allowed excessive force by deputies to fester in his jails despite repeated warnings, a blue-ribbon commission concluded Friday.

“If a chief executive officer in private business had remained in the dark or ignored problems plaguing one of the company’s primary services for years, that company’s board of directors likely would not have hesitated to replace the CEO,” the commission wrote.

The county commission, which was created last year to examine allegations of jail abuse, released a 194-page report condemning Baca and his top aides and recommending more than 60 reforms that included a management shake-up, harsher penalties for excessive force and dishonesty,  and the formation of a new civilian watchdog.

Read more at the LA Times