107512.ME.0209.jail.BRV –– Understaffed and overcrowded, the Los Angeles County jail system –– the n

107512.ME.0209.jail.BRV –– Understaffed and overcrowded, the Los Angeles County jail system –– the nation's largest–– books nearly 200,000 inmates per year and watches over a population that averages 18,000 a day. A review found that the agency has failed to protect vulnerable inmates, failed to maintin order and control in the jails and has no long term plan for managing the jails and instead lurches from crisis to crisis. Above in a crowded Inmate Reception Center Inmates sleep on the floor while waiting to be processed for Men's Central Jail or Twin Towers in downtown Los Angeles, (Photo by Brian Vander Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)