Corruption and Abuse by L.A. County Deputies Contribute to Suicide, Report Confirms

John Horton was held in solitary confinement in the Los Angeles County Men‘s Central Jail following his arrest for drug possession. He committed suicide.

In the days leading up to his death in March 2009, jail staff noted that Mr. Horton was despondent. His cell was a dimly-lit, windowless, solid-front box the size of a closet. His body was already stiff by the time security staff discovered him hanging from a noose in his cell, with his hands bound – one of eight successful apparent suicides in the L.A. County jails in the past calendar year.

Margaret Winter, ACLU National Prison Project

Read more.

ACLU/SC Seeks Records About FBI Collection of Racial And Ethnic Data

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today asked the FBI to turn over records related to the agency‟s collection and use of race and ethnicity data in Southern California communities.

The request is one of 30 coordinated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by ACLU affiliates in states and the District of Columbia seeking to uncover records from the FBI field offices related to the “mapping” of ethnic communities in the U.S.

Read more.

An Open Letter to Lindsay Lohan from the ACLU

Dear Lindsay,

We know that going to jail is scary. But we can assure you that your experience at the women’s facility in Lynwood, outside Los Angeles, is likely to be starkly different from the thousands of others serving time and awaiting trial in the Los Angeles jails. Based on the ACLU’s decades of experience as an official court-appointed monitor of the jails, and the stories of countless women with whom we’ve spoken, the facility where you are staying is an overcrowded detention facility where women are needlessly humiliated for so long that they come to expect sub-human treatment.

Read more.