Hundreds of inmates at the Terminal Island federal prison on the harbor front spent one of the coldest periods in decades in frigid cells with no heat and only blankets for warmth before they were transferred temporarily to another facility.

As outside temperatures plunged into the low 40s at night, two units that housed more than 200 inmates lost heat after an underground steam line failed in January at the low-security federal lockup that sits at the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro.

Inmates were provided with extra blankets, officials said. But by many accounts, the blankets were thin and offered little protection against the chilly harbor air, according to people familiar with events who declined to be named for fear of retaliation. Some inmates got sick from the constant cold, said two attorneys representing inmates as well as a friend of an inmate.

After weeks of failing to restore the steam line, the inmates were transferred on Feb. 20 to a federal correctional institution in Victorville until repairs are made.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.