County Ordered to Begin Limits on Jail Crowding

Declaring that he had tried to be accommodating but could no longer “blink” at his “constitutional obligations” to see that prisoners are treated humanely, a federal judge Friday required Los Angeles County to comply with previous orders limiting jail overcrowding.

The action by U.S. District Judge William P. Gray may result in early releases for some inmates and cause significant disruptions in the schedules of state courts in Los Angeles, county officials said.

Nonetheless, county officials did not oppose Gray’s actions, which were requested by the American Civil Liberties Union as an outgrowth of the jail overcrowding lawsuit it won against the county eight years ago.

From 8,000 to 22,000

Since then, county jail population has exploded from about 8,000 to more than 22,000, officials said.

Gray’s actions require that the county provide a seat to every inmate placed in a holding cell while waiting to be bused to court and reduce the population at the county’s largest jail, Men’s Central, from more than 8,000 inmates to 6,800. Such a reduction would still leave that jail at 110% of its rated capacity.

“We can’t really oppose the order under the circumstances,” Assistant County Counsel Fred Bennett told Gray. Bennett said that 6,800 inmates at the downtown jail are all that the Sheriff’s Department can handle safely in a “Spartan” but “humane” way.

He was pessimistic about solving the problem of jail overcrowding. “I’m sure we’re going to be back here again as the population increases,” he told the judge.

Bennett said the order requiring that the Sheriff’s Department provide seats for inmates in holding cells may result in “chaos” for state courts.

About 1,800 inmates are crowded into holding cells with 753 seats each weekday, the Sheriff’s Department said.

To comply with Gray’s order, the Sheriff’s Department will have to bus inmates to court in shifts and some inmates may not reach court until noon.

Recalling his visit to the holding cells in 1979, however, Gray said there was no alternative. He said conditions there, where inmates sometimes wait for hours, reminded him of “the Chicago stockyards” or “my uncle’s pig ranch in Lancaster.”

“I determined I had a responsibility as a federal judge to stop that,” he said.

Gray said that he respected the efforts of Sheriff Sherman Block to minimize overcrowding, but that it is clear the Sheriff’s Department needs help from the state courts and the county Board of Supervisors in arranging for speedier court processing of inmates.

Meanwhile, he said, “I have to make sure that if a person is incarcerated, he has a bed to sleep on.

“I have tried to be accommodating and in effect blink at my constitutional obligations for some time. I can no longer do it.”

Gray said he was “appalled” when he learned that only about 70 of the 1,800 inmates bused to court each weekday are on trial. The rest make pretrial appearances.

Gray suggested that many of these trips could be eliminated by using closed-circuit television hookups that would allow inmates in jail to communicate with judges in courthouses on routine matters. He also suggested trips could be reduced by having judges come to the jail.

At any rate, he declared of the holding cells: “We’re not going to have those pigpens any longer in the county jail.”

Gray gave county officials until Nov. 20 to come up with a new transportation plan. He said they must be prepared to put it into practice by Dec. 1 and reduce Men’s Central Jail population to 6,800 by Jan. 1.

Block said he believes no initial releases of inmates will be required.

Moved to Outlying Jails

He said he believes the 1,200 inmates who will have to be moved from the Men’s Central Jail can be housed in outlying jails.

But he said that if the number of inmates in the system continues to rise, “we may have to engage in some release program.”

He said the department has a contingency plan that would save up to 1,600 beds by releasing about 1,000 misdemeanants up to three days early and by releasing about 600 people who are in custody awaiting trial because they cannot afford to post bail of $2,000 or less.

Block said he could not predict whether this plan will have to be implemented.

But he said it is clear that courts need more judges hearing criminal cases, including at night. “It’s something that has to be addressed or the whole system could collapse,” he said.”

The ACLU’s decision to ask Gray to enforce his orders was a reaction to a decision by the Los Angeles Superior Court to limit, as inefficient, a pilot program urged by the ACLU and by Gray. That program eased overcrowding somewhat by assigning more judges to criminal cases. However, an increased backlog of civil cases resulted.

ACLU attorney John Hagar said enforcement of Gray’s new orders could still be headed off in settlement talks if the county government and courts agree to assign more judges to criminal matters.

JAIL OVERCROWDING The number of inmates in Los Angeles County jails on Friday at 1 a.m.:

Rated Actual Capacity Pop. All Jails 12,556 22,383 Men’s Central Jail 5,276 8,026 Hall of Justice Jail 1,086 1,991 Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho Max. Security 888 1,673 Medium South 880 1,763 Medium North * 711 Minimum 1,240 2,063 Biscailuz Center 1,244 1,715 Mira Loma Compound Male 520 885 Female 512 549 Sybil Brand 910 2,051 Inmate Reception ** 917 Hospital Ward ** 39

* Facility will not officially open until Nov. 12. Eventually, it will house about 800 inmates. ** Rated capacity unavailable.

Source: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Information Bureau