Deputies work in dangerous conditions at Men's County Jail

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles Men's Central Jail is loaded with problems and far past its prime, and early estimates show replacing it could cost $2 billion.

It begs the question, does the county need to use that much taxpayer money for a better place to house society's criminals?

The fact that it is in such bad shape should be a concern.

The jail is filled to the brim with more than 5,000 inmates, among them are cold-blooded killers, rapists, thieves, the mentally ill and people looking for a second chance. Those inmates are looking for an opportunity to prove their worth, even their innocence.

All of them are squeezed together in a place which opened in 1963 and is long overdue for retirement.

ABC7's David Ono got a rare look inside the jail with new Sheriff Jim McDonnell and Assistant Sheriff Terri MacDonald, who took over the jail and it's mountain of problems in 2013.

Both receive a great deal of respect from the staff, but the pair are the first to admit there are still horrible things that take place in the jail, which can be tough to stop such as a practice called gassing.

"Some of the inmates, who are hostile, may take, for instance, a container such as a milk carton container and fill it with blood, with feces, with urine and squirt it, assaulting the deputy," McDonnell said.

In a surveillance video, deputies are trying to put out a fire set in a cell in the far corner of the shot, but it ends up being an ambush. A barrage of containers and fluids begin to pelt the deputies. Even nurses who distribute medication are targeted.

Gassing is a highly infectious and psychologically scarring form of assault, and the instances have almost doubled in the last year.

"We're putting inmates, we're putting our deputies, custody assistants and staff in a position that we shouldn't be putting them in," McDonnell said.

Another form of assault is spearing. Inmates can take newspaper, pieces of plastic bottle that are melted down and can tie it onto some sort of stick to use to stab people, MacDonald said.

In another surveillance video, an inmate barely misses as he tries to stab his rival. A deputy quickly disarms him.

The linear design of the jail is one of the reasons it is so hard to crack down on the assaults. It is an antiquated concept when all the cells are lined up in a row. Deputies are unable to see inside each cell unless they walk right up to them. Add in the narrow walkway and bars and it becomes a dangerous combination.

Blind spots are also a deadly hazard in the jail.

"So when the nurse or the deputy or the C.A. or the doctor has to walk down the catwalk, anyone can throw a fluid at them, stab them with something," MacDonald said.

One of the worst blind spots in the jail's linear design is in the most dangerous spot of all - the control room. One deputy opens and closes the cell doors using a panel, and from the small room she can't even see the doors she is operating.

"So there's a potential that you're opening the wrong cell and you've let enemies out on the tier," MacDonald said. "You could easily have a major injury, even a homicide."

In another video, an inmate finds a way to open his own cell and is armed with a shank.

"We're doing the best we can with what we have. What we have is woefully insufficient. So we need to retool the way we're doing business as far as the criminal justice system," McDonnell said.