Los Angeles County Jails Investigated By FBI

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LOS ANGELES -- The FBI is investigating allegations of civil rights abuses by deputies at Los Angeles County's sprawling jail network, authorities said Monday.

The probe follows complaints by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which earlier this year said one of its jail monitors saw deputies beat an inmate unconscious.

The scope of the probe was not immediately clear, but sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said FBI agents had apparently helped smuggle a cellphone into one facility so the prisoner could communicate with authorities on the outside.

"The FBI, in collusion with an inmate, snuck a phone into our jail," Whitmore said. "That is a serious breach of our security."

Whitmore said the federal investigation was not warranted because several independent agencies already keep a close eye on LA's jails, which have long drawn criticism for their poor conditions, with prisoners complaining of dead rats in cells and overflowing toilets.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller declined to comment on the investigation but said federal agents were investigating allegations of civil rights abuses in at least two separate cases.

The investigation was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

ACLU legal director Peter Eliasberg said conditions at the central jail downtown are dire, with inmates cramped into dorms at double the capacity the rooms were designed for.

To make matters worse, the state is next week due to change how it sentences some criminals, which will send thousands of extra inmates into county custody.

Los Angeles has the nation's largest jail network, with about 15,000 inmates.

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Prison Guards!!! on one block that have started their own gang... The "3000" group or some shit. Have their own gang sign... involved in shootings and everything. WTF

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KTLA Special Report: 'The Gang Behind the Badge?' Part Two
An investigation into the LA County Sheriff's Department secret subgroup who call themselves "The 3000 Boys."

FULLERTON (KTLA) -- On a busy party night at the popular 'Slidebar' nightspot in Fullerton, the bar's surveillance cameras record bouncer Chris Barton, trying to clear the bar at closing time, just before 2 a.m.

Most of the bar patrons file out willingly. But a few...do not.

Barton identifies them in the surveillance video, obtained exclusively by KTLA News. He says three customers who refuse to leave are LA County Sheriff's deputies.

KTLA Special Report: 'The Gang Behind the Badge?' Part Two - ktla.com

.....Then, Barton says, Ortega threatens him in the name of his "3000 Boys," a group of close-knit sheriff's deputies who, some say, function like a street gang themselves. They sport similar tattoos, they flash gang-like signs, and they've been linked to violence both inside and outside the Men's Central Jail where they work.