Jail Crowding Will Force Releases, Sheriff Block Says

Sheriff Sherman Block today said overcrowding in the county’s jails has reached a breaking point that will force him into a new release policy putting some inmates on the street three days before the end of their sentences.

“This decision was arrived at with great anguish and personal consternation,” Block said. “It was (a choice) I had sincerely hoped would not have to be made.”

The decision, he said, was partly forced by an agreement reached last November by the Board of Supervisors and the American Civil Liberties Union in settlement of a lawsuit that sought to improve conditions at the Central Jail by reducing the number of inmates held at the facility.

“Today, it has become an impossible task to abide by the mandates of that agreement,” Block said.

Under the new policy, inmates with three days or fewer remaining on their sentence will be released as will anyone awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges with bail of less than $2,000 and no previous warrants.