ACLU calls Men's Central Jail a dungeon, seeks closure BARS: Group ranks overcrowded facility among nation's worst.

Byline: Troy Anderson, Staff Writer

Describing it as a medieval dungeon that can "drive men mad," the ACLU on Tuesday called on the county to close Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

An official with the civil rights group who has studied some of the nation's worst prisons for the past 16 years said for the "sheer horror and brutality" Men's Central Jail is the "most nightmarish place I've seen."

Worse even than the notorious Death Row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary or the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, she said.

"What makes Men's Central Jail so horrific is the massive overcrowding," said Margaret Winter, associate director of the National Prison Project of the ACLU.

"Many thousands of men, thousands of them suffering from serious mental illness, are packed like sardines in dungeon-like barracks, or they are hidden away in solitary confinement in coffin-like cells for days, months or even years in some cases."

The press conference outside the county Hall of Administration came as the American Civil Liberties Union released a 50-page report by a national expert on jail mental health care documenting how brutally overcrowded conditions cause or contribute to violence and serious mental illness at the aging facility.

The report found about half the 5,000 inmates at the nearly 50-year-old jail suffer from mental illness. Most of them are awaiting trial and have not been convicted.

One of those inmates, John Horton, 22, was found on March 30 hanging from a noose in his cell after spending more than a month in jail following his arrest on a drug charge. Horton was held in solitary confinement in a dimly lit, windowless, solid front cell the size of a closet. His body was already stiff by the time jail officials discovered him.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Sheriff Lee Baca has long held the jail has outlived its usefulness and a new jail should be built with a safer and more modern pod design instead of linear rows of cells. Whitmore said the jail was built in the early 1960s and was originally designed to hold those who committed misdemeanors, but now houses a mix of nonviolent and violent offenders.

"We have been working on this for a very long time and the sheriff believes that ultimately Men's Central Jail should be dismantled," Whitmore said.

"Although we appreciate the input and the sheriff never turns a deaf ear to those who think they can do things better, this report is basically 30 years old."

But Lawanda Hawkins, founder of Justice for Murdered Children, said she's appalled by the proposal to close the jail, as well as Baca's desire to build a new one.

"Wasting taxpayer dollars to build another jail? I just can't imagine that when we're all taxed out right now," Hawkins said. "I understand the mental health issue. I sympathize with them. But a lot of these people committed serious crimes against our community and it's not fair to continue to allow them to victimize us again."

Winter said inmates with mental illnesses are kept in their cells 23 to 24 hours a day in "perpetual twilight, or even darkness." She said the cells have no windows, poorly functioning toilets and showers and inadequate supplies of soap and clean underwear. She added that inmates are under constant fear of attack and often wait weeks or months for medications.

The ACLU report, written by Dr. Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist and author of "Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It," was written and given to Baca last year.

It was released publicly on Tuesday after months of negotiations with the Sheriff's Department failed to result in any substantive commitment to follow Kuper's recommendations.

Kuper found that idleness and massive overcrowding at the jail lead to violence, victimization, custodial abuse and ultimately psychotic breakdown even in relatively healthy people, as well as potentially irreversible psychosis in detainees with pre-existing mental illnesses.

Melinda Bird, senior counsel at the ACLU of Southern California, argued the county could save $250 million by closing the jail and spending money on more cost-effective alternatives such as electronic monitoring, drug and alcohol treatment programs, mental health treatment and vocational training.

"We are urging the Board of Supervisors to immediately address the conditions at Men's Central Jail because they are medieval and drive men mad," Bird said.

She said it costs $50,000 a year to house a mentally ill inmate, compared to $15,000 a year for those various alternatives to incarceration. Bird said New York City successfully closed one of its jails using similar methods.

The county also operates Twin Towers Correctional Facility downtown, opened in 1997, but Bird noted it is also full now and could not serve as an option to alleviate overcrowding at Men's Central.

Tony Bell, spokesman for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, said the supervisor is committed to ensuring the mentally ill receive treatment, but he said the ACLU has blocked legislation over the years that would ensure mandatory care for those in need of treatment.

"Furthermore, while we are waiting for a jail improvement project plan, it makes no sense to close our jail and spend billions of dollars in this fiscal climate," Bell said.

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