ORANGE, Calif. - One of the first things Sandra Hutchens will have to deal with in her new job as Sheriff of Orange County is a records request from the ACLU of Southern California seeking information about jail policies and procedures in the wake of the grand jury's report on the tragic death of John Derek Chamberlain in one of the county's jails.

According to a grand jury report issued in April, 41-year-old Chamberlain, a computer technician from Mission Viejo, was beaten to death by fellow detainees at Theo Lacy Facility in October 2006 because they mistakenly believed that he was a child molester. The report found that during the fatal attack, deputies who were supposed to be patrolling the inmate barracks were instead watching television and text messaging their friends on their cell phones.

Hector Villagra, director of the Orange County office of the ACLU/SC, said in a letter last week to Jack Anderson, the then acting sheriff, 'The grand jury's findings plainly detail a crisis in management and supervision. The grand jury report, however, is not the only cause for concern. While the county jails averaged 3 to 5 deaths a year from 1993 on, 11 inmates died in 2006. Since 1997, the county has paid $2.5 million to settle complaints of abuse in county jails. The human toll and economic cost that results from lax management and supervision at county jails should be of concern to all county residents.'

Villagra said the ACLU/SC supports the creation of an independent, civilian body to oversee the investigation of complaints at county jails and to inspect county jail facilities, review their operations, and compare stated policies with actual practices. 'In the meantime,' Villagra wrote,' the ACLU of Southern California intends to use every available means to increase the openness and transparency of the county jails.' He then requested a number of documents that outline the department's policies, procedures and guidelines on inmate supervision, personnel rounds and patrols of the jails, grievance procedures for complaints against jail personnel, the medical treatment of inmates, the use of Tasers or stun guns and a number of other concerns.

'Sheriff Hutchens is coming to the Orange County Sheriff's Department with a clean slate,' said Villagra, 'and we're hoping that she will bring a fresh approach and new openness to the management of the county's jails. We look forward to working with her.'

By law Sheriff Hutchens has until June 15 to comply with the records request.

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LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - More than a year ago, Gabino Olvera, a mentally impaired paraplegic homeless man, was left to drag himself on a downtown Los Angeles street after his discharge without a wheelchair from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

Today, a settlement of his lawsuit against the hospital insures the same will not happen to other Hollywood Presbyterian patients.

The settlement was negotiated by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, Steven Archer of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, and civil rights attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Public Counsel. It establishes protocols for the proper release of indigent patients, requires training of hospital personnel, and names former U.S. Attorney and retired U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird as special monitor of the hospital for up to five years.

The agreement also contributes a total $1 million to two non-profit corporations to help with transportation and post-discharge care of the poor, the uninsured and the homeless in the Hollywood area. JWCH Institute, Inc. will receive $600,000 for post-discharge facilities, while Queens Care receives $400,000 for outpatient physician care.

The settlement follows an investigation of Hollywood Presbyterian stemming in part from the discharge of Olvera, 42, who on February 8, 2007 was dumped on Skid Row in his hospital gown, without his wheelchair and trailing a broken urinary catheter.

'The case of Gabino Olvera is one of the most shocking that we have come across,' said Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 'This agreement insures that one more hospital can't leave indigent patients helpless and flailing on Skid Row. We hope that, as with the settlement reached last year in the case of Carol Ann Reyes, hospitals get the message: patients are not to be dumped like rubbish in the streets.'

Last year, the Kaiser Permanente hospital chain reached a settlement in a similar case involving Reyes, an elderly homeless woman who was left on the street wearing only a hospital gown and socks.

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