The indoctrination of Margo Peace, who is black, into the customs of the department began the moment she took a job eight years ago as a detention officer in a prison in Van Nuys, Calif. Almost the first words she heard, she said, were white officers calling prisoners "nigger," even in the presence of the black officers.

"I was shocked," she said, but added that she had soon become accustomed to it. She added: "For blacks, that 'yes, ma'am, no, sir' stuff stops the day they get out of the academy. I even started using that word" in dealing with people "because the word was so prevalent."

John Funches, another detention officer, said that at morning roll call last year, he and several other black officers "were raising our hands and saying there were some problems here in the jail. The captain turned to us and said, 'I'm tired of you people throwing spears at me.' "

Interviews with more than a dozen black officers offer a portrait of broad and deep frustration for the black det