Judge Voids His Order on Crowding in County Jails

Following an accord to speed up court proceedings, a Los Angeles federal judge Wednesday voided his requirement that Los Angeles County comply with his order to limit jail crowding.

His action was expected in the wake of an agreement last week by Los Angeles County, state courts in Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union to try to reduce crowding by speeding up court procedures for defendant inmates. Most of the 22,000 inmates in county jails are awaiting trials.

U.S. District Judge William P. Gray, sitting temporarily in New York City, voided his order at the behest of the ACLU, which had used the threat of enforcement to pry concessions from county government and state courts.

Additional County Funds

County supervisors last week agreed to spend an additional $25 million annually, and state courts in Los Angeles agreed to make substantial procedural changes to make available more full-time criminal courts and reduce the time it takes to settle criminal cases.

In return, the ACLU agreed to give the new program at least six months before asking Gray to enforce his order.

Gray’s order would have required the sheriff to give each inmate a seat while waiting for a bus to court. This seemingly innocuous requirement would probably have caused widespread disruption in state court schedules because, in order to provide seats for each inmate, the sheriff would have had to bus inmates to court in shifts.

Order Issued in 1979

Gray first issued the order in the ACLU’s jail overcrowding lawsuit against the county in 1979 when the jail population was 8,000. He decided to enforce it a month ago when the ACLU complained it was unable to persuade a Superior Court heavily backlogged with civil cases to provide enough courtrooms to process criminal cases rapidly.

Gray said at the time that he would reconsider his decision if the ACLU told him that “satisfactory progress toward solving jail overcrowding is being made by all county agencies, including the Superior Court.”

ACLU attorney John Hagar and Assistant County Counsel Fred Bennett said in telephone interviews that they flew to New York to tell him that Wednesday--two days after the seating requirement was to have gone into effect.

They said they expect Gray to formalize his action at a hearing Dec. 15 in Los Angeles.

Gray had also required that officials limit the county’s largest jail, Men’s Central in downtown Los Angeles, to 6,800 inmates, rather than the current 8,000. But officials said they feared that might trigger early releases for some convicts.

Hagar agreed to work with the Sheriff’s Department to avoid releases by developing a plan that would allow what he called a “flexible cap.”

“It might be 7,200 or 7,500,” he said recently. “But I cannot approve any longer the housing of inmates in day rooms. Day rooms will start to be used for exercise.”

Hagar said Wednesday that he wanted to give the Sheriff’s Department flexibility to move inmates from outlying facilities into dormitories at the central jail temporarily when they have to make court appearances downtown.

He said Gray has given him and the Sheriff’s Department until Jan. 30 to submit a plan on controlling the number of inmates at the central jail.