Search About Newsletters Donate
Donate today. Double your impact.

Through December 31, Marshall Project board member Abby Pucker is matching all donations, dollar for dollar, up to $75,000. Double your donation and receive a special thank-you gift by making your gift today.

The Orange County sheriff's jailhouse snitch scheme came to light during the trial of Scott Dekraai, left, who ultimately pleaded guilty to killing eight people in a 2011 shooting spree.
Quiz

The Jailhouse Snitch: A Quiz

Test your knowledge on the high-stakes market in information behind bars

This month, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Orange County, California, district attorney and sheriff, the latest development in the county’s ongoing “snitch scandal.” For at least a decade, as part of a large-scale, meticulously organized program, deputies would plant informants to secretly gather incriminating information about defendants in the jail. When the snitches testified against those defendants, they didn’t reveal that law enforcement had orchestrated the encounters.

Prosecutors commonly use informants to secure convictions, swapping leniency for “substantial assistance.” Insiders with information to barter can be particularly crucial in cases of organized crime or sophisticated drug operations. (It wasn’t until Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano snitched that the feds finally nabbed John Gotti, for example.) It is common for prosecutors to bring the toughest possible charges against a potential informant as a lever to get cooperation.

But snitches who gather intelligence on jailhouse neighbors — often complete strangers — should be treated with particular skepticism, courts have said: they have “a tremendous incentive” to say whatever prosecutors want to hear, says Boston College Law Professor Robert Bloom, author of “Ratting: The Use and Abuse of Informants in the American Justice System.”

Below, test your knowledge of how jailhouse snitching works — and doesn’t work — around the country.

This is not a paywall.

We’ll never put our work behind a paywall, and we’ll never put a limit on the number of articles you can read. Our ability to take on big, groundbreaking investigations — the kind that can lead to real impact — doesn’t depend on advertisers or corporate owners. It depends on people like you. Our independence is our strength, and your donation makes us stronger.

When you donate by December 31, your donation will be matched, dollar for dollar, by Marshall Project board member Abby Pucker. As a special thank-you gift, we'll also send you one of our exclusive Marshall Project tote bags.

Donate