Judge Gives Reprieve to Jails Caught in Squeeze

San Diego County jailers won a monthlong reprieve Thursday from an overcrowding crisis when a judge restored a key mechanism for controlling the inmate population.

San Diego Municipal Court Presiding Judge Frederic Link authorized sheriff’s deputies to resume for four weeks the practice of releasing without bail many of the people they arrest on outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

Sheriff John Duffy abruptly halted the cite-and-release program early this week, pointing to an opinion by state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp that state law does not permit anyone but a judge to release suspects held on misdemeanor warrants.

As a result, the county’s already overcrowded jails posted record population counts Wednesday, as deputies booked scores of offenders who previously would have been released without even a trip to jail.

Shock waves swept the county’s criminal justice system. Police officials complained that officers would have to waste time driving to far-away jails or sitting in long lines to book minor offenders. Jailers warned about risks to guards and inmates in teeming detention centers. The courts were forced to lay on extra judges and defense lawyers to handle a stream of arraignments.

Link’s approval of a partial resumption of the cite-and-release program, reached after a meeting with Assistant Sheriff Cliff Powell, should substantially relieve the latest jail woes, according to Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. John Tenwolde.

“It’s going to help,” he said Thursday. “We went into court today to appeal . . . for help and cooperation, and the court responded.”

However, Link said he was imposing strict limits on the sheriff’s power to release accused misdemeanor offenders.

Deputies, he said, will be required to book all defendants picked up on warrants charging them with being under the influence of controlled substances, with repeated drunk-driving violations, with offenses involving child victims and with other more serious misdemeanor offenses.

Previously, such suspects were released because jail space was reserved for defendants charged with felonies and violent crimes.

Link said he was restoring the sheriff’s cite-and-release powers reluctantly. “The idea of everybody getting out of jail carte blanche is repugnant to us as judges, and I know the sheriff feels the same way,” he said. “The only reason we’re engaging in these charades is because we don’t have enough jail beds.”

Meanwhile, judges and law enforcement officials plan to meet during the next month to devise procedures that will allow the county to abide by the spirit of the attorney general’s opinion, which sought to restore respect for the courts by denying misdemeanor suspects automatic release without bail when they have failed in the past to show up in court.

“I am not doing this to in any way take the pressure off people who have warrants outstanding,” Link said. “The only reason I’ve agreed to this is to give the sheriff some help with what I consider to be an absolutely horrible situation.”

Jail officials had estimated that 1,000 to 1,500 additional inmates would be booked into county jails each month with the curtailment of the cite-and-release program. Tenwolde said Thursday it was too soon to say how much of that burden would be relieved by Link’s order.