600 to Get Early Releases at Jails to Cut Crowding

Six hundred inmates in jails throughout the county will be granted early release today in a move to comply with a federal court mandate to reduce overcrowding in the Los Angeles County Central Jail, Sheriff Sherman Block announced Tuesday.

Unveiling the first phase of a plan to reduce the Central Jail population from more than 7,600 inmates to a court-approved level of 6,800, Block said almost all county jail inmates who have three days or less to go on misdemeanor sentences will be released early.

“We are operating under a federallymandated cap of 6,800, or up to 7,500 at peak times if necessary,” Block said. “It is essential (to reduce overcrowding) if we are to continue to manage this system.”

Block, initiating the release program in response to recent decisions by U.S. District Judge William P. Gray in a lawsuit filed against the county by the American Civil Liberties Union, said more prisoners might be released as early as Sunday to bring the Central Jail population down to 6,800.

“The plan is that we will review the situation every Wednesday and Sunday,” Block said. “This first 600 is essential to allow us to make the necessary adjustments. Sunday we might release more.

“The public should not be worried,” Block added. “These are not people who constitute a threat to the community. They are people who would have completed their sentences in 72 hours anyway.”

Block, who invited reporters and photographers on a rare tour of the fortress-like Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, painted a grim picture of the overcrowding there even while expressing mixed emotions about the idea of releasing hundreds of prisoners from custody.

“It’s not very convenient and not very comfortable for the inmates,” he said. “We have had beds in the corridors, beds in the chapels. In fact, church attendance is at an all-time high because we’ve turned chapels into sleeping areas.

“I have a split personality here,” Block said. “I put on my cop hat and I see a lot of people who should be in jail. And then I put on my jailer’s hat and I’m looking for ways to get people out of jail. It’s not always a comfortable position, but it just goes with the territory.”

Block and other sheriff’s officials noted Tuesday that even with the early release of 600 inmates from the county’s nine jail facilities to reduce the burden on the Central Jail, the overall county jail population will remain at more than 22,000 inmates, almost 10,000 more than the system was designed to hold.

Inmates to be freed today will be released in groups of 10 from facilities throughout the county, officials said. To reduce the Central Jail population, inmates housed there will be transferred to such other facilities as the Biscailuz Center, the Mira Loma Compound and the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho.

ACLU attorney John Hagar praised Block’s move Tuesday, but criticized judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court, saying that they have failed to help alleviate overcrowding by not moving fast enough to streamline criminal court proceedings.

“The sheriff has taken the courageous approach,” Hagar said. “There’s not much disagreement between the ACLU and the Sheriff’s Department that every facility is at its limit. You get to the point where inmates don’t get their basic rights and the facilities become unsafe for deputies.

“Nonetheless, this a very unfortunate consequence of jail overcrowding,” Hagar continued. “When you start to limit the discretion of the municipal courts because of population limits, you begin to encounter a problem for the legal system. As overcrowding continues to be a problem here, municipal court judges are increasingly going to see their sentences ignored.”

During Tuesday’s tour of the Central Jail, reporters were shown television and recreation areas converted into crowded sleeping quarters, overcrowded medical facilities with dozens of inmates waiting for beds in the jail infirmary, and cellblocks where prisoners often sleep on mattresses on the floor because all available beds are taken.

“As the population count goes up, you can see the tension levels go up,” said Lt. Dennis Wilson, watch commander. “You see the fights go up. They are more eager to challenge the deputies. There are lines of people everywhere. They are sleeping by the hundreds in every available day room.

“Honest to God, it’s just like Disneyland,” he said.