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Jail Layout
LA County Jail Interview
*Names have been changed to protect privacy.
Jail Media: How many different blocks were there in the LA county jail?
Ben Smith: LA County is huge. In Downtown LA, there’s what they call Main Central Jail, and then right across the street is Twin Towers. Twin Towers is basically for what they call high powered inmates that are in there for really violent crimes like murder charges, or people that are fighting long cases. That’s one whole complex. There’s another complex where they will put the women and another one where they put the homosexuals, and where they put people that are crazy that have psycho problems, people that have drug problems that are in there for rehab, or that are kicking a heroin addiction or something.
Jail Media: So that was in Twin Towers as well?
Ben Smith: Yeah, that’s all Twin Towers. A regular inmate such as myself, they’ll be put in either mid-central jail, where they’ll be housed, or they’ll be sent up to where Magic Mountain is – I don’t know if you know where it is – it’s up in a city called Valencia. That’s a whole different compound up there. That’s where they house other inmates. It’s about 45 minutes away from LA, but it’s still an LA County facility. It includes three more complexes. One’s called Super Max, one is called East Max, and the other one’s called Medium North. Actually, I think there’s another one called Medium South, too. Up there, that’s for all regular inmates that just have regular charges like DUI’s, domestic violence, and simple assault charges – nothing serious. Actually, there were some guys up there with gun charges too. We’re all mixed up together. The biggest difference is that in Orange County, you’re only put together with people of your same class, as far as your criminal background. In LA, you’re mixed up with guys that are going upstate. You could be doing maybe only 15 days, but the guy next to you would be doing five or six years upstate. They don’t have that much room where they can separate everybody, so they keep them all together. The only guys you really have to watch out for are the guys that are going upstate because they really don’t have a lot to lose.
Jail Media: Was there any way to distinguish who they were without just asking them?
Ben Smith: Not really. Most of the time, you know, it will just come up in conversation. People are really open to letting you know what you’re in there for, and how long they’re doing. A lot of it comes down to race. This is where the prejudice comes in. Races try to help each other out, you know like the community tries to better their people. They’re trying to knock the others back. This is the inmates, not the cops. The inmates are trying to be productive in there. They’re trying to get you so you don’t come back to jail. Blacks do the same things, and whites do the same things. They’re not trying to get you in more trouble.
Jail Media: In Cook County in Chicago, there are different color uniforms based on the severity of the crime. Do they have that in LA?
Ben Smith: In LA, they’re trying to get as many people as they can to be workers. If you have a good record, and good rapport with the deputies, you can be a worker right off the bat. They want you to work, but you have to have made a deal on your case.
Jail Media: Do they have jobs in the jail, or do they have a work release program?
Ben Smith: They have a work release program which I don’t suggest. If you’re really desperate about getting out of jail, then go for it. What they do, though, is they’re constantly coming to you left and right trying to get you to do work release or house arrest, because they know you’re not going to do a lot of time in there. So what they want to do is get you on the outside, and they’ll try to scare you by saying that you’re going to do your full 30 days, or you can get out of jail tonight, and you’ll do 45 of community service, but a person that’s had experience at LA County Jail would know that they’re only going to do 3 days in jail, so why would they exchange that for 45 days of real work on the outside? A lot of the intimidation comes in. The cops are trying to intimidate you because they know that you’re not doing a lot of time. They have no room for you.
Jail Media: When you do work release, is it community programs or something that they assign you to?
Ben Smith: It’s cleaning up parks, the sides of the freeway, and things like that. I’ve been suckered into that a few times, but I would rather just do the jail time.
