Overcrowded Jails: Inmates May Be Freed, Sheriff Warns

The Los Angeles County jail system, designed to house 11,113 inmates, has reached an all-time high of 18,056, and facilities are so severely overcrowded that authorities may soon have to turn prisoners loose, Sheriff Sherman Block said Saturday.

“I don’t know what our absolute limit is, but at some point our system will stop functioning,” Block said at an impromptu press conference. “As we approached 15,000, we believed that the system would probably break down. We thought the same thing as we approached and passed 16,000 and 17,000.”

Block said the typical daily jail population has increased by 6,000 during the last two years. Authorities had projected that the 18,000 mark would not be reached until 1990, he added.

The Sybil Brand Institute for Women is at double its capacity of 900, Block said.

Sleeping in Hallways

At various other facilities, inmates are sleeping on mattresses in hallways and chapels. They may soon be placed on the roof of the men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, which is housing 2,726 more prisoners than the 4,800 it was designed to accommodate, Block said.

Facilities are hot, and tempers are at a “peak level,” he said.

“Poor food could push this thing over the edge quicker than anything else,” Block said. “The only thing many of these people have to look forward to is their next meal.”