NEW ORLEANS - A court-appointed prison monitor says staffers at the New Orleans jail that opened last September "just have no clue" of how to run it.

Susan McCampbell's remarks came on opening day of a federal court hearing on whether an independent third party should be placed in charge of the jail instead of Sheriff Marlin Gusman. McCampbell described Gusman as passionate in his will to improve jail conditions. But, she said, the Sheriff's Office lacks knowledge of how to do so.

The result, McCampbell said, is continued violence endangering inmates and staff.

Gusman blames a lack of funding from the city for many of the prison's woes.