Los Angeles County Central Jail

Upping the ante in their quest for a new contract, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies assigned to the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles staged a work action Monday, taking more time than usual putting prisoners on buses to go to court hearings. Sheriff's custody chief Barry King estimated that inmates were delayed an average of half an hour in arriving at court because deputies--following the "letter of the law"--allowed prisoners longer than usual for breakfast.

Allegations that Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies twice burned crosses on floors of the Central County Jail where gang members are kept will be investigated by the FBI, The Times has learned. The Sheriff's Department already has launched its own investigation. Federal sources said agents plan to investigate whether white deputies violated the civil rights of black inmates by burning crosses in the quarters of members of the Crips and Bloods gangs about a year ago.

An inmate who complained about the cake he was served at dinner Thursday evening threw his food tray at a jailer and set off a 10-minute disturbance that resulted in injuries to six sheriff's deputies and five inmates at supper time in the county's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, authorities said.

Four Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and a sergeant have been reassigned out of the Central County Jail pending an investigation into allegations that they used excessive force against black street gang members locked up at the facility, a jail official said Tuesday. The investigation involves two recent incidents in the second-floor module where members of the Crips gang are housed, said Capt. William Hinkle, commander of 6,800-inmate jail.

Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide investigators confirmed Wednesday that trusties in a crowded holding cell at the Men's Central Jail were improperly given confidential information detailing the charges against a 20-year-old accused child molester, who was subsequently beaten and strangled by other inmates.

A 35-year-old inmate at Men's Central Jail was found dead Wednesday of apparent blunt-force trauma, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The unidentified victim was unresponsive when he was discovered in the downtown jail about 6 p.m., said Deputy Diane Hecht. It was unclear whether he was in a cell at the time. Paramedics declared him dead at the scene. Homicide detectives were still investigating the circumstances of the death late Wednesday, Hecht said.

Kevin Jerome Pullum pleaded not guilty to a felony escape charge in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, hours after he described his life on the lam to detectives in rich detail, officials say. The man convicted of attempted murder said he spent most of his 16 days on the streets, panhandling for hamburgers, drinking alcohol and constantly trying to stay a step ahead of the law, Dets. Robert Barrios and Susan Higgins said Tuesday.

A federal judge who expressed disgust over conditions in the Men's Central Jail has ordered the creation of an expert panel to supervise reforms at the facility. The order released Monday by U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson gives the panel 60 days to develop a comprehensive plan including "immediate measures for improvement" for the nation's largest county jail. He called overcrowding there "not consistent with basic human values" after touring the jail in May.

A federal court judge spent three hours Wednesday inspecting conditions at the downtown Men's Central Jail, which some observers say is so antiquated and overcrowded that it's putting inmates at risk. U.S. District Court Judge Dean D. Pregerson had been asked by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California to inspect the jail, at which the group alleges overcrowding contributed to a series of riots this year.

A controversial program to train Los Angeles County jailers to check the immigration status of inmates, which stalled when federal officials balked at allowing immigration-rights advocates to sit in on the sessions, could restart within weeks, officials said Monday.