Recent detainees at Los Angeles County's Men's Central Jail tell horror stories.

A real estate broker from Maryland says he watched helplessly while gang members beat a senior citizen. An Orange County college professor says he was denied diabetes medication and forced to stand in a room where rotting trash lay four inches thick on the floor.

These and many other reports are the basis for a lawsuit by the ACLU of Southern California that asks a federal judge to find the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in contempt for failing to improve overcrowded conditions at the Men's Central Jail.

In a 10-page ruling issued in Oct. 2006, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the county from holding more that 20 inmates for more than 24 hours in small holding cells in it's inmate reception center, located at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

But as testimonials gathered by the ACLU/SC have revealed, brutality and inhumane living conditions remain the norm and may have even gotten worse.

"Men's Central Jail has become Los Angeles County's version of Devil's Island, a hellhole where detainees convicted of no criminal offenses and frequently charged with non-violent offenses such as traffic violations are subjected to sleep deprivation for want of beds, insufficient feedings and wholesale lack of appropriate physical and mental health care," said Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU/SC legal director. "In some cases, detainees have been hooded and chained to benches. These practices fail minimal standards of human decency."

LOS ANGELES - Dangerous, grossly overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in Los Angeles County's jail system are worse than they were six months ago when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order for the county to clean up the facility, according to legal papers filed today in U.S. District Court by attorneys for the ACLU of Southern California.

ACLU attorneys are asking the judge to find the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and the county Board of Supervisors in contempt and order them to restore conditions at the jail to 'proper functioning.'

Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU/SC legal director, called the current jail conditions inconsistent with basic human values. 'Men's Central Jail has become Los Angeles County's version of Devil's Island, a hellhole where detainees convicted of no criminal offenses and frequently charged with non-violent offenses such as traffic violations are subjected to sleep deprivation for want of beds, insufficient feedings and wholesale lack of appropriate physical and mental health care,' Rosenbaum said.

'We have documented practices of cramming 50 men into tiny cells without beds, compelling detainees to attempt to sleep against walls or next to toilets,' Rosenbaum continued, 'Detainees have routinely been denied food, drink, functioning toilets and even toilet paper. In some cases, detainees have been hooded and chained to benches. These practices fail minimal standards of human decency.'

In a 10-page ruling last October, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the county from holding more that 20 inmates for more than 24 hours in small holding cells in it's inmate reception center, located at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

Among the 16 sworn declarations filed today were statements from a real estate broker, a lawyer and a college professor, all of whom were shocked at the barbaric conditions they faced when detained in the jails.

'Since Feb. 10, 2007, the sheriff has not been in compliance with the IRC order for a single day'_' said ACLU attorneys in the filing. ''_On most days, 20 inmates or more are held over 24 hours; on some days this may double or even triple'_'

Melinda Bird, senior counsel for the ACLU/SC, said her office has been flooded with calls and letters from detainees at the inmate reception center. 'We have documented that inmates were held for 4 and 5 days without access to beds, clean water, visitors, phones or even a toothbrush' she said. 'It just cannot be allowed to continue.'

David Fathi, of the ACLU's National Prison Project, was co-counsel on this case.

LOS ANGELES - U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson ruled Monday that the Los Angeles Police Department has been engaging in unconstitutional searches of the homeless on Skid Row.

As part of it's effort to stop the criminalization of homelessness in the city of Los Angeles, the ACLU of Southern California, civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, and the law firm Hadsell & Stormer petitioned a court last December to extend a 2003 injunction that prohibits LAPD officers from indiscriminately stopping and searching the homeless without adequate justification.

The lawsuit claimed that LAPD officers were stopping residents of Skid Row, asking if they were on parole or probation, then even when they said they were not, searching them and their belongings.

Residents also alleged that officers sometimes initiated searches before asking their probation or parole status. All of these acts were in violation of a 2003 injunction that prohibited these types of searches. The injunction was set to expire last December.

In his ruling, Judge Pregerson granted a four-month extension of the injunction finding that the LAPD, by its own testimony, 'admitted to an unconstitutional policy' that violated the rights of Skid Row residents.

The ruling limits the LAPD from using tickets for minor infractions like sleeping on the sidewalk or jaywalking as pretexts for searches; it requires that officers either believe that the person has further evidence of a crime in order to conduct a search, or actually make an arrest for the minor offense so that the search is required as a safety precaution in transporting the person to jail.

'This is a big victory for the residents of Skid Row,' said ACLU staff attorney Peter Bibring. 'Arbitrary, unjustified searches where Skid Row residents were stopped, publicly handcuffed, and detained for about 20 minutes are oppressive to individuals and to the entire community.'

The court extended the injunction for four months saying the extension should give the LAPD ample time to review its policies and practices to ensure that they comply with current Fourth Amendment law. The court also allowed for a further extension if LAPD does not comply by August 23, 2007.