Source:   Los Angeles Times
Contact:    Wed, 27 Aug 1997

                   Los Angeles Times

  Downtown Los Angeles
  Plumbing Woes Plague New Twin Towers Jail
   

           Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.
                 A plumbing problem at the stateoftheart Twin
           Towers jail downtown left thousands of inmates with toilets
           that backed up and couldn't be flushed, authorities said
           Tuesday.
                While some inmates complained about serving
           unnecessarily hard time during the weekend mishap, sheriff's
           officials said a team of plumbers had worked around the clock
           to fix the problem at the $373million facility, which was
           opened in January.
                Officials said there were no mishaps, illnesses or
           injuries, but acknowledged that some female inmates at one
           section of the jail just could not wait for the pipes to be
           repaired and used a plastic bag as a makeshift toilet.

             
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