--- title: "California's growing use of jailhouse informant stings draws court scrutiny" description: "California police agencies increasingly plant undercover agents in jail cells to draw confessions from people awaiting charges, a tactic known as a Perkins operation. A CalMatters investigation finds the practice is widespread, unevenly applied by race, and now facing a wave of challenges at the state Supreme Court." category: "California" category_url: https://herald.la/category/california author: "Omar Haddad" published: 2026-07-14T14:00:00.000Z updated: 2026-07-14T14:00:00.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/california-s-growing-use-of-jailhouse-informant-stings-draws-court-scrutiny tags: ["criminal justice", "civil liberties", "california courts", "policing", "miranda"] --- # California's growing use of jailhouse informant stings draws court scrutiny California police agencies increasingly plant undercover agents in jail cells to draw confessions from people awaiting charges, a tactic known as a Perkins operation. A CalMatters investigation finds the practice is widespread, unevenly applied by race, and now facing a wave of challenges at the state Supreme Court. A person arrested in California but not yet charged may find a new cellmate: a talkative "inmate" with a violent backstory who wants to swap stories about the case. Often, that cellmate is an undercover agent. The technique, known as a Perkins operation, is spreading across California law enforcement, and a [CalMatters investigation](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/) documents both how widely it is used and how much it is now contested in court. ## How the operations work The name comes from a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision, *Illinois v. Perkins*, which held that Miranda warnings are not required when a suspect volunteers incriminating statements to someone they believe is a fellow inmate rather than a police officer. In practice, [CalMatters reports](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/), agents pose as hardened prisoners and use pressure tactics, sometimes invoking gang loyalty or menace, to draw a suspect out. Riverside County runs such operations frequently, including many on behalf of other agencies around the state. ## A wide, uneven footprint The scale is striking. In one Los Angeles County unit alone, CalMatters [found 85 of about 400 murder convictions involved a Perkins operation used after the suspect had already invoked the right to remain silent](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/), a pattern that suggests far larger numbers office-wide. The investigation also found sharp racial disparities. Reviewing [881 Riverside County murder cases from January 2015 through June 2023, CalMatters found Black defendants were about four times as likely, and Latino defendants about twice as likely, to be targeted as white defendants](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/). In San Diego County, [Hispanic teenagers were roughly seven times as likely to be targeted as white teenagers](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/). ## The legal fight At least [10 challenges to Perkins operations are now pending before the California Supreme Court](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/), involving Black, Latino and white defendants, the youngest just 18. The core questions are whether agents may effectively work around a suspect's decision to stay silent or ask for a lawyer, and whether threats and deception cross a constitutional line. One case shows the stakes. Jason Zapata was arrested in 2015 over an allegation that he fired a gun into the air; after undercover agents worked him in a cell, he was convicted of murder in January 2024 and sentenced to 25 years to life. In 2026 a state appeals court reversed that conviction, and [the California Supreme Court in May declined the prosecution's request to undo the reversal](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/). ## Both sides Critics say the tactic manufactures unreliable confessions and evades constitutional protections. California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu has written that ["the use of deceptive schemes to elicit confessions from suspects who have invoked their Miranda rights appears to be a pervasive police practice in California."](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/) Civil-liberties advocates point to a cautionary precedent: the ACLU has documented that an Orange County jailhouse-informant program [operated for decades while prosecutors failed to disclose it to the defense](https://www.aclu.org/news/smart-justice/orange-county-prosecutors-office-ran-secret-unconstitutional-jailhouse-informant). Law enforcement defends the practice as a legitimate, carefully corroborated tool. Greg Totten, head of the California District Attorneys Association, told CalMatters that investigators ["look for corroboration…to make sure statements are intrinsically accurate and sound,"](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/) and San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan said the operations are [applied "across the board, wherever it appears that a heartless murder can benefit."](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/) How the state's highest court answers the pending cases could reshape what California police may, and may not, do inside a jail cell. ## Sources - ['Psychological war': Inside California's expanding use of jailhouse stings](https://calmatters.org/justice/2026/07/perkins-investigation-california-jails/) - [Orange County prosecutors ran a secret, unconstitutional jailhouse informant program](https://www.aclu.org/news/smart-justice/orange-county-prosecutors-office-ran-secret-unconstitutional-jailhouse-informant)