The American Civil Liberties Union today demanded that a federal judge hold Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Robert Luna in contempt of court for ``failures to comply'' with court orders to address "abysmal" conditions at the jail system's booking center.
In a filing in federal court in Los Angeles, ACLU attorneys alleged that mentally ill detainees were shackled to chairs for days at a time and others were crammed together, sleeping head-to-foot on concrete floors.
The motion is the latest action in the long history of federal oversight of the county jail system, the largest in the nation. ACLU attorneys who visited the center at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles late last year reported unhygienic conditions, including floors littered with trash, overflowing sinks and toilets, no access to showers or clean clothes for days and lack of adequate access to drinking water and food at the center.
The civil rights group also claims the facility is negligent in providing adequate health care, including failure to provide people with serious mental illness or chronic medical conditions their medications and fails to provide care to people dangerously detoxing from drugs and alcohol.
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department runs the jail system. A representative said the department cannot comment due to the pending litigation.