Twin Towers Correctional Facility
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The 1.5 million square foot (140,000 m²) complex was opened in 1997. It was authorized and constructed after the Northridge Earthquake damaged the historic Hall of Justice in Pasadena. Security at the facility centers around a modern panoptic design that allows jailers in a central control room to look through secure optical material to see into all areas of the facility. Jail operators have also led the way in the use of medication to control inmate populations.
Regardless of the state-of-the-art security systems built into the jail, inmate Kevin Pullum walked out an employees exit on July 6, 2001, two hours after being convicted of attempted murder, and remained at large for eighteen days before he was apprehended within a mile (1.6 km) of the jail. Pullum used a newspaper photograph of actor Eddie Murphy to alter an identification badge he used in the escape.
Because so many of the inmates at Twin Towers are held under the influence of psychiatric medications, the jail has come under fire from human rights advocates as a central focus in the use of psychiatric drugs to control prisoners. Though most inmates are held for low-level crimes against LA County ordinances, the use of psychiatric drugs to control prisoners is considered a technology of political control in a report summarizing technologies of political control prepared by the Omega Foundation for the European Parliament.
Other jails operated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff include: