Search Continues for Firearm Reportedly Smuggled Into Jail

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, searching again Monday for a firearm they believe has been smuggled into the Men’s Central Jail, conducted a series of random checks of inmates and cells without turning up the weapon.

Otherwise, officials said, life has returned to normal at the overcrowded downtown facility, the subject of a highly unusual lock-down and search that concluded late Saturday.

For three days, inmates were not allowed to leave their cells, make phone calls, eat together in the dining room or receive guests other than their lawyers.

The situation was prompted by a tip last Thursday from a source deputies believe to be reliable.

Assistant Sheriff Richard Foreman said Monday the lock-down was ended Saturday because “you can lock the jail for only a certain period without interrupting the tranquility of the place.”

During the lock-down, prisoners could not be transferred to other county jail facilities, thus increasing the Central Jail’s population and, in turn, its normal tension level. At the height of the lock-down, Foreman said, the population had surged to 7,300 prisoners, about 2,300 more than the jail’s state-rated capacity.

“People kept their cool very well,” Foreman said. “And we didn’t push it.”

The current searches are “fairly random,” Foreman said, and will “continue until we get additional information that the original tip wasn’t accurate or information that the weapon has somehow gotten out of the (jail).”

Foreman would not specify the type of gun being sought.