Sheriff Block for Reelection

Sheriff Sherman Block is the obvious choice for the top law-enforcement job in Los Angeles County. He deserves reelection on June 3.

During his first term, Block has ably headed a department of 8,500 employees who run the county’s swollen jail system and who patrol the county’s massive unincorporated areas and 36 municipalities, more than 3,000 square miles. Hard circumstances have made severe and chronic jail overcrowding Block’s most urgent priority. The Los Angeles County jail system’s inmate population has ballooned to more than 20,000 men and women, at times, crammed into space intended for 11,824. In the Central Jail more than 8,000 men have been wedged into space intended for 5,118.

Substantial relief is hardly in sight. The 2,100 new maximum-security beds, planned at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Ranch in Castaic, are two years from completion. However, 500 additional beds for women, under construction at the Mira Loma Facility, are scheduled for completion in August.

In the absence of substantial resources, Block has tackled the crisis with creativity. He has successfully urged new local policies, such as night court, to speed the judicial process so that inmates spend less time in detention. He has sought additional relief from the California Legislature, winning approval on one of four measures to address court delays.

He wants speedier courts and more beds, but he also acknowledges that neither will completely solve overcrowding unless drug abuse is curtailed. Block, the former chairman of a state commission on drug prevention, would make substance abuse his No. 1 priority if the county had jails with room to spare. He would like to reach children as young as fourth-graders to prevent future drug involvement.

Block, a tough 30-year veteran of the department, is also quietly compassionate. He understands that the fear of crime can paralyze as much as crime itself. He is proud that families can spend Sundays in parks where gangs once reigned.

The Los Angeles County sheriff must manage a jail system that ran out of room years ago and a department that provides law enforcement to areas as diverse and far-flung as the Antelope Valley, Rancho Palos Verdes, West Hollywood, East Los Angeles and Marina Del Rey. It is a tough job. Sherman Block is our choice on June 3.