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| L.A. jail called deadly, outdated |
| By Los Angeles Times |
| Published: 02/07/2005 |
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Los Angeles County's largest jail is so outdated, understaffed and riddled with security flaws that it jeopardizes the lives of officers and inmates, the county's expert on the jail system concluded in a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 last 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. 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. |
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