LOS ANGELES - In a letter to Sheriff Lee Baca and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, the ACLU of Southern California sought assurance that a county jail budget increase will end the practice of forcing inmates to sleep on the floor.

The Board of Supervisors allocated an additional $24.4 million to the jail coffers last December with the intent to reopen jail beds and curb the early release of inmates. Sheriff Baca says he will reopen 760 beds in March and 400 beds in May. Currently about 650 inmates at the seven county facilities sleep on the floor each night. The county must provide each inmate with a bed after one night on the floor.

"Right now conditions are so poor, especially at decrepit facilities like Men's Central Jail, that they create a public health risk for deputies, inmates and the community. More beds are essential to accommodate the existing inmate population," said Jody Kent, Jails Project Coordinator for the ACLU.

Overcrowding in the jails augments tension among inmates and facilitates the spread of staph and other infectious diseases making it an unhealthy work environment and a danger to all of Los Angeles. It is also in direct violation of the court order Rutherford v. Block.

"The county's legal obligation is to get inmates off the floor after 24 hours and it is not meeting this requirement," said Ricardo Garcia, Criminal Justice Director for the ACLU of Southern California. "We expect these funds will help do that."

LOS ANGELES - County Supervisors and Sheriffs officials must ensure inmates in the seven jail facilities in Los Angeles have access to a bed, timely medical attention, clean clothes and showers in order to control the ongoing outbreak of a virulent form of staph infection. They must also employ an epidemiologist to monitor the bacteria immediately, say ACLU jails monitors.

The ACLU, which monitors conditions in the jails, conducted an audit of clothing exchange and showers in several cell blocks in Men's Central Jail throughout the fall and winter. The ACLU has also assisted hundreds of inmates every month in gaining access to medical care for treatment, including cases of staph infections.

"Unsanitary living conditions including trash build up, lack of linens, and inmates sleeping on the floor still exist in the county jails," said Jody Kent, Jails Project Coordinator for the ACLU of Southern California. "Until these conditions improve everyone - jail staff, inmates and the community - will be at risk of contracting staph."

The L.A. County jails are currently on a special schedule to reduce the spread of staph. Instead of showers every other day as mandated by the state, inmates are required to have access to a shower every day. Over the last several months the Sheriff's Department has made improvements in meeting this requirement.

"At first the jails were diagnosing staph as spider bites," Kent said. "Now they recognize it's a serious infection, but without reducing the inmate population and addressing the extreme overcrowding in the jails, especially at Men's Central Jail, it's nearly impossible to curb the outbreak."

The new strain of staph, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, is particularly pervasive and is sometimes resistant to common treatment. Health officials throughout Southern California have reported an increase in the infection as have jail staff at other jail systems throughout the country.

Los Angeles - Southwestern Law School Professor Isabelle R. Gunning began her term as president of the ACLU of Southern California Tuesday after she was unanimously elected by the organization's executive board last month.

Gunning, who has her B.A. and law degree from Yale University, has been a board member of the ACLU for the past 14 years. She is the first African-American woman to serve as the organization's president.

"We have an important job at the ACLU to ensure the civil rights and civil liberties of all people especially immigrants and communities of color are protected," Gunning said. "It's never been more important to keep a vigilant eye on our rights."

Gunning cited the increase of racial profiling in the wake of 9/11 and the decrease in ranking of California schools as top priorities for the ACLU. She also plans to continue past-president Gary Williams' vision of a biannual conference for ACLU members in Southern California.

"Isabelle has been integral in our executive legal committee where she has especially helped to drive our work in education and women's rights," said Executive Director Ramona Ripston.

Gunning was motivated to study law during the civil rights movement of the 1970s when she saw that "some very positive things could be accomplished through the courts." She taught for six years as a member of the faculty at the UCLA School of Law before her appointment to Southwestern in 1992. She previously served as a public defender in Washington, D.C. and clerked for Judge William Bryant of the U.S. District Court in D.C.

Gunning is a mediator and an arbitrator and has served as a pro bono mediator through the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Services Project, and Gay and Lesbian Mediation Project, as well as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Martin Luther King Jr. Dispute Resolution Center. She has also co-chaired the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center.

She lives in Los Angeles with her partner, daughter, their three dogs and a cat.

Term limits precluded past ACLU President Gary Williams from continuing to serve, but he remains a board member.