ACLU: Jail Closure Would Make "Bad Situation" Worse
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 3:02 PM PDT
The ACLU wants officials to come up with a plan before closing the facility.
The ACLU asked a Los Angeles federal judge Monday to prevent the closure of a 1,600-bed jail facility without first developing a plan to cope with worsening conditions in other lockups.
In documents filed in U.S. District Court, the civil liberties group further demanded that Sheriff Lee Baca consider closing the Men's Central Jail instead of the more modern North Facility at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, which the sheriff has said he will close on Sept. 1.
Closing that facility without a detailed plan "will have a grave impact on inmates already forced to endure substandard conditions," said Melinda Bird, a consultant with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
"As it is now, the sheriff's department is violating the constitution by holding thousands of mentally ill inmates in windowless cells in Men's Central Jail, without access to medical and mental health treatment, and literally driving them mad," Bird said. "We cannot afford to make this bad situation even worse."
Baca's spokesman said the sheriff would rather keep North Facility open, but is being forced to close the jail because of the budget crisis.
"He doesn't want to close the facility, but he has to make budget cuts," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. "He has to do what's necessary."
Whitmore added that it would be far too difficult to close the Men's Central Jail, the population of which Baca has already lessened by 2,000 prisoners.
Bird charged that the department's "failure to adequately plan for closures in the past" had led to "deadly rioting," severe processing back-ups and detainees being packed into holding cells "for days or even weeks" at a time.
The ACLU's request for a preliminary injunction asks U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson to require Baca to prepare a report on the impact closing the Castaic jail facility will have on the county's remaining jail facilities.
The ACLU is also seeking a follow-up, weekly count of inmates in cells, court documents show.
A series of declarations submitted with the filing paint a bleak picture of life inside the Men's Central Jail, alleging detainees are left for a week without a change of clothes, are forced to use moldy, dirty showers and rarely see daylight.
As many as 120 prisoners are crammed into a single dorm at a time, and some must wait for days for medical attention, the ACLU contends.
Baca called for the downtown jail to be closed last February, saying the facility had "outlived its time." But, blaming cutbacks, he has now chosen to close the newer North Facility, the civil liberties group said.
The filing is part of Rutherford vs. Baca, the ACLU's decades-long litigation challenging conditions at the Los Angeles County Jail.
