NEW ORLEANS - November 17 - In legal papers filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union, 45 men and women formerly detained at Orleans Parish Prison recount disturbing details of being abandoned without food or water and abused by guards after Hurricane Katrina struck.

The ACLU said that the scores of testimonials it has obtained from prisoners contradict public statements made by Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman that the prisoners had food and water and that the evacuation went as planned.

“The prisoners’ accounts are remarkably similar, and raise serious claims that they were abandoned by prison officials and subject to excessive force,” said Eric Balaban of the ACLU National Prison Project, which represents the prisoners in an ongoing class-action lawsuit.