LOS ANGELES - After touring Men's Central Jail Wednesday evening, a federal judge today ordered representatives of the Los Angeles' Sheriff's Department and the Board of Supervisors to meet with the ACLU of Southern California over the next two weeks in order to develop a comprehensive plan to improve conditions at Men's Central Jail, the largest jail in the country.

Judge Dean D. Pregerson asked the ACLU and the county to present a jails reform plan to him at a hearing scheduled for May 25.

The following statement can be attributed to Jody Kent, coordinator of the jails project at the ACLU of Southern California.

After a comprehensive tour of Men's Central Jail yesterday, we are pleased that Judge Pregerson agreed with the ACLU of Southern California that the living conditions at Men's Central Jail must be improved.

The ACLU is encouraged that the Court shares our concerns with regard to cell overcrowding. The judge noted that inmates are crammed into cells where they remain locked down nearly twenty-four hours a day, with barely any room to stand up, much less walk around. The Court noted that inmates remain in their beds day and night as a result. The judge said that such conditions are "not consistent with basic values" and that they "should not be permitted to exist."

Overcrowded living conditions, a staffing shortage and insufficient fire safety measures have contributed to ongoing tension, violence and a general lack of safety for inmates and deputies in the jails and must be eliminated. We are encouraged that the County signaled its willingness to negotiate the issues the Court raised and we look forward to forging a long-term commitment with the County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff's Department to develop a master plan to expeditiously improve conditions in the jails. To do this successfully we believe the Court's involvement in this process is imperative.

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the election of the Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., an internationally acclaimed civil rights leader and religious scholar, as Chair of its National Advisory Council.

"We are proud and honored to have this 'quiet giant' of the civil rights movement take the helm of the ACLU's National Advisory Council," said ACLU President Nadine Strossen. "Rev. Lawson is unquestionably a man of peace, but he is also a fierce warrior for justice who will not back down from a fight no matter how imposing the enemy is."

Rev. Lawson was elected to the position by the ACLU's 83-member board at its quarterly meeting on April 23. As Chair of the ACLU's National Advisory Council, he will act as an advisor to the ACLU on civil liberties matters as well as a public advocate for the issues the ACLU champions. The 56-member Advisory Council is a diverse group of prominent Americans who have demonstrated a deep commitment to civil liberties.

Rev. Lawson, 77, is well known in the civil rights community as a deputy and advisor to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who once called Rev. Lawson "the leading non-violence theorist in the world." He was at the forefront of the civil rights struggles of the 1960's as the mentor and leader of students who conducted the sit-ins that integrated the lunch counters, libraries and voting booths of the South, as well as the Freedom Riders who helped end forced segregation on buses and trains.

Despite the fall of segregation laws and the enforcement of voting rights, "the nation must still face up to the 'spiritual forces' of poverty, violence and sexism," Rev. Lawson told the Los Angeles Times in a 2004 profile.

Strossen noted that Rev. Lawson has been at the forefront of the 21st-century struggle for civil liberties and human rights. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Lawson became a founder of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, which includes Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and Protestant leaders, and calls on religions "to stop blessing war" and violence in all its forms.

He is also a spiritual leader in advocacy for equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, insisting that their struggle for equality under the law is part of the continuing quest for human rights and human dignity for all people.

Rev. Lawson retired in 1999 as senior pastor of the 2,700-member Holman United Methodist Church on West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. He has been an active member of the board of the ACLU of Southern California for the past 15 years. Since 2004, he has served a second term as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group founded by Dr. King. Lawson is also chairman of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, which is in the forefront of a Los Angeles campaign for a living wage for hotel, garment and restaurant workers and others. In addition, Rev. Lawson will be a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt University for the 2006-7 academic year. This appointment is notable because he was expelled from Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1960 because of his civil rights activities.

The previous chair of the ACLU's National Advisory Council was the sociologist and pioneering civil rights leader Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, who held that position since 1991, a post he retained until his death on May 1, 2005. Dr. Clark's predecessor was Eleanor Holmes Norton, who served until she was elected to Congress. The chairmanship of the council is a three-year position. The Chair of the advisory council also serves as a member of the national Board of Directors of the ACLU.

LOS ANGELES - In the wake of violence at Men's Central Jail resulting in the injuries of Sheriff's Deputies May 2, federal district court judge Dean Pregerson has scheduled a hearing at the request of the ACLU of Southern California. The renewed violence marks the first time that Sheriff's personnel have been injured.

The following can be attributed to Jody Kent, jails project coordinator for the ACLU of Southern California.

The ACLU of Southern California monitors the conditions in the seven Los Angeles County jails facilities and for years has been warning that conditions at Men's Central Jail, the largest single jail in the country, create unacceptable safety and security risks for deputies and inmates alike.

More must be done to avoid violence in the jails. Changes made after the riots and fighting that erupted throughout the county jails earlier this year are not sufficient and the proposals the Sheriff's Department has presented to the Board of Supervisors will not solve deeply-rooted, underlying problems in Men's Central Jail.

Last month the ACLU returned to court and asked the federal judge overseeing a three-decade old lawsuit on jails conditions to establish a collaborative process involving Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff's Department in order to develop and implement a strategic plan to reduce severe overcrowding and staffing shortages at Men's Central Jail. The scheduled hearing responds to this request.

Specific conditions detailed in court papers filed by the ACLU last month include:

' Unsafe staff to inmate ratios. In many cases one sheriff's deputy must monitor more than 100 inmates, which puts everyone at risk.

' Inmates are confined to spaces about a third of the size required by federal correctional standards.

' Dayrooms are being used for housing despite sheriff's deputies inability to properly monitor the scores of inmates that can be housed in the open rooms.

' Almost all inmates are locked down nearly 24 hours a day. Some 15 percent of inmates are denied three hours per week of federally mandated exercise time, which means they are locked down 24 hours a day.

The ACLU believes that the court must be involved to ensure long-term, positive changes that will improve dangerous and deadly conditions at Men's Central Jail for both deputies and inmates.