a grim situation. I am posting it all because LA Times www requires registration. Also below is a summary and a link to Lary Mantle's show on KPCC.
"L.A. Jail Called Deadly, Outdated, by Jack Leonard and Richard Winton.
Los Angeles County's largest jail is so outdated, understaffed and riddled with security flaws that it jeopardizes the lives of guards and inmates, the county's expert on the jail system concluded in a confidential report recommending that the facility be closed.
Special counsel Merrick Bobb sharply criticized Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles for failing to prevent dangerous inmates from being housed with lower-risk inmates and said the cellblocks' design ensured that any response to an inmate takeover would be extraordinarily bloody.
The 6,338-bed jail, the largest in the country, "is nightmarish to manage" and suffers from "lax supervision and a long-standing jail culture that has shortchanged accountability for inmate safety and security," Bobb said.
The Board of Supervisors ordered the report, obtained by The Times, after inmates killed five fellow inmates in county jails between October 2003 and April 2004. Four of the slayings occurred at Men's Central, one of six jails — housing 18,495 inmates total — that the county operates. Bobb's is the most critical of several recent inquiries into the jail system, all of which have called for security improvements. Even after the slayings in Men's Central, Bobb said, deputies continued to seriously err in classifying inmates and deciding where to house them.
The supervisors, who received the confidential report in November, have not discussed it in public. But two said Wednesday that it had spurred them to question Sheriff Lee Baca about whether he could move some inmates from Men's Central to more secure facilities. Bobb called for the massive lockup to be phased out and replaced with new, smaller jails — a move that Baca called unrealistic, saying it would cost the financially strapped county nearly $1 billion.
Other jails around the country already use more sophisticated systems to house and control inmates, Bobb wrote. In the meantime, he urged the county board to take immediate steps to make Men's Central safer. Among his major recommendations, Bobb said the jail should overhaul how it decides where to house inmates and dramatically increase the number of sheriff's deputies at the facility, which has one of the worst staff-to-inmate ratios in the country. The jail has one staff member for about every 10 inmates, while the national average is one for every 4.3 inmates.
The report also paints a chilling scenario of what could happen without improvements. Calling an inmate takeover more than a remote possibility, Bobb wrote, "It would be nearly impossible to quell without the spilling of so much blood as to be morally, pragmatically and politically indefensible." A Los Angeles lawyer who specializes in police practices, Bobb declined to comment on the report, citing attorney-client privilege.
Baca said he could not comment on the document for the same reason. He acknowledged that the jail had security flaws and was understaffed but called an inmate takeover "highly unlikely."
The four-story jail's design allows units to be shut down individually, reducing the likelihood of mass violence, he said. "Even when we had disturbances in the gang modules between the Bloods and the Crips in the 1980s," Baca said, "we were able to quickly move in." In 1985, inmates armed themselves with broom handles and other makeshift weapons in an uprising that was put down by a team of armed deputies, injuring 12 deputies and 40 inmates.
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Refurbishment Planned
Baca said he planned to refurbish Men's Central by adding security cameras and upgrading locks on doors. He is also weighing whether to replace bars on the front of each cell with doors to prevent inmates from passing messages and weapons back and forth. "The Central Jail needs a dusting and cleaning and retrofitting, but its basic design is cost-effective," he said.
In his report, Bobb applauded efforts by the department to correct security flaws immediately after the spate of killings. Baca noted that there had been no killings since the summer, when the county allocated $7.5 million to improve the frequency with which deputies search individual cells at the jail.
"The difficulty is that we're woefully understaffed," he said. "The board knows this. I know this." The sheriff said it was not feasible to demolish Men's Central and build newer jails given the county's financial problems.
He has repeatedly lobbied for money to reopen jails with a total of about 4,000 beds that have been closed amid $160 million in budget cutbacks over the last three years. The closures have led to the early release of more than 120,000 inmates.
Just to meet Bobb's staffing recommendation for Men's Central, Baca said, would require 600 to 800 more deputies at a cost of about $80 million. "Where is the board going to find $80 million?" he asked.
Supervisor Mike Antonovich said he hoped the Sheriff's Department would implement some of Bobb's recommendations. And he said the report should trigger a review of what to do with Men's Central.
"I don't know if it has to be torn down, but that ought to be examined along with renovating it," Antonovich said. "You have to look at all options." He said his colleagues had taken Bobb's report to heart. Two months ago, Antonovich said, the report prompted the board to ask the sheriff and the county's chief administrative officer to find a way to reopen the Sybil Brand Institute for Women in Monterey Park, which could house 2,300 inmates.
Antonovich has also pressed to allocate enough money to move the 1,823 female inmates in the maximum-security Twin Towers, which currently houses both men and women, to a less secure facility in Lynwood that is empty. That would allow hard-core inmates at Men's Central to move to the newer Twin Towers, where they could be better monitored.
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Closure 'Not Viable'
Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke agreed that such a step would help improve security at Men's Central. But she said, "It is not viable in the near future to consider closing the jail." Investigators working for Bobb spent days and nights in the jail talking to inmates and deputies, finding numerous instances of low- and medium-risk inmates housed in cells with dangerous ones.
Even after the murders in Men's Central, two of the accused killers were mishandled by jail officials. After Santiago Pineda allegedly murdered another inmate, he remained classified at a danger level of 7 out of 9 in a system requiring that killers receive the highest classification. In addition, Bobb said, county investigators discovered that Jonathan Newhall was not isolated from other inmates, even after being accused of murdering one.
Many of the jail's problems stem from its design. Built in two phases during the 1960s and '70s, cells are arranged in long corridors and can only be watched if deputies walk the corridors to peer inside each cell.
More modern jails, like Twin Towers across the street, are built with cells around a control booth that allows deputies to monitor each cell from the booth.
An enormous concrete building, Men's Central is a labyrinth of corridors, rows of cells and metal gates — a maze that only veteran inmates and deputies can easily negotiate. Garbage bags and sheets hang from cell doors, obstructing the view. Shouts, curses and clanging doors echo through the facility, which is penetrated here and there by a few shafts of sunlight.
The jail houses many defendants — including the county's most violent inmates — awaiting resolution of their cases. Currently, 596 are charged with murder or attempted murder. "This is a one-of-a-kind jail in terms of size and the number of people moving back and forward from court," said Michael Gennaco, head of the county Office of Independent Review, which also monitors the Sheriff's Department for the Board of Supervisors. "It is phenomenal there hasn't been another murder there."
Sheriff's officials said it was almost impossible to prevent violence while moving thousands of inmates in and out of the jails every day. In Men's Central, deputies should walk the corridors day and night, Bobb wrote. He recommended that the staff ratio be increased to one guard for every four, or at most five, inmates.
"When inmates know they are not being watched, or are being watched just once every hour," Bobb wrote, "they will take advantage of the situation — by manufacturing [jailhouse liquor] or other contraband, extorting other inmates or physically abusing their cellmates."
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"KPCC Feb 7 - Men's Central Jail
A confidential report, “leaked” to the LA Times last week, reportedly found that the Men’s Central Jail in Downtown LA is outdated, understaffed, and riddled with security flaws. So much so that the lives of guards and inmates could be in danger. The LA County Board of Supervisors ordered the report which was presented to them in November. Larry speaks with Supervisor Yvonne Burke and Michael Gennaco, of the county’s Office of Independent Review about the problems facing LA County’s jails and possible solutions." You can hear this show at http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/index.shtml