23,000 Inmates Released in Bid to Ease Jail Jam

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block said Tuesday that he has released nearly 23,000 inmates--a number equal to the jail population at any time--in the three months since a federal judge ordered him to control jail crowding.

Block said that most of those released were accused of misdemeanors--relatively minor crimes such as petty theft or carrying concealed weapons--and were in jail only because judges had set bails for them of $2,500 or less, which they were unable to post. They were freed in return for their promises to appear at later court hearings.

The sheriff said many others released were people convicted of misdemeanors whom he freed up to 10 days early to make room for other inmates coming into the county jail system.

Judge’s Order

The county jail system also houses prisoners accused of felonies--more serious crimes--who will, if convicted, serve their sentences in state prisons.

Block acted in response to an order from Senior U.S. District Judge William P. Gray in late May that gave the sheriff blanket authority to release as many inmates as necessary to keep the jail population from exceeding 22,319 inmates.

The county’s 10 jails have a capacity of 12,600.

Block said he did not believe that the public’s safety had been threatened by the releases.

He noted that the 10,000 people convicted of misdemeanors who were released early would have been freed within a few days anyway, and the 12,800 people accused of misdemeanors who were released on their promise to appear in court would have been freed if they could have afforded to post $2,500 bails.

However, he said, in the fall, a time of year when jail population traditionally peaks, he might have to expand releases to inmates accused of nonviolent felonies who were in jail on higher bails while awaiting trials.

Block said the releases have become a daily routine. He said all people accused of misdemeanors and with bails set at less than $2,500 are automatically released as soon as they are booked into the jail system if a computer check shows that they have no outstanding warrants.

He said the same is true for inmates with sentences of 10 days or less for misdemeanors.

“If you get a 10-day sentence, you’ll be booked in, processed and walked out,” the sheriff said.

He said he has kept the courts apprised of his policies but has noticed no changes in the types of sentences handed out nor the amounts of bail being set.

Court Dates Kept?

He said he did not know how many people who were facing misdemeanor charges and who were released on their promises to appear in court were in fact keeping their court dates.

However, Assistant County Counsel Frederick R. Bennett, the lawyer who represents the Sheriff’s Department, said he had “no doubt that the number of failure-to-appear arrest warrants is going up.”

“The question is: How severe is that? At the moment, nobody has raised that as a big problem,” he said.

But Bennett said public safety may be “a real concern” soon.

“I believe the sheriff is going to be faced with very difficult decisions (on whom to release). There’s certainly a possibility of having to release pretrial felons. . . . The key is whether other solutions (to overcrowding) can be found.”

The sheriff has noted that 2,100 new maximum-security jail beds are expected to be ready next spring at the Peter Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic and that 4,000 more jail beds are “currently on the boards.”

But he has also said the additions will not come quickly enough to solve the problems of a system with a population that has nearly tripled in less than a decade.

Even before Gray’s order in late May, the Sheriff’s Department had been releasing some inmates early to ease overcrowding. For years, Block said, convicted misdemeanants had been released five days early. Between February and May, about 8,500 convicted misdemeanants got an additional one to three days off their sentences.

Block had asked Gray for authority to release more inmates with the concurrence of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which in 1979 won a jail overcrowding lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department and the county. Gray presided over the trial of that suit.

In recent years, the ACLU has sought to work cooperatively with the sheriff on the problem.

Both have placed part of the blame for overcrowding on Los Angeles Superior Court delays in processing cases of accused felons.

However, Richard P. Byrne, presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, said his court is being made a “convenient scapegoat.”

He noted that a Superior Court study found that the number of accused or convicted felons in county jails while being dealt with by the court had decreased substantially in the last three years, while the jail population had increased.

Byrne said that three years ago, when the jail population was about 17,000, about 3,500 accused felons were in jail while being processed by the court and another 1,800 convicted felons were in jail awaiting sentencing.

Currently, he said, 3,660 accused felons are in jail while being processed by the court, and 1,070 convicted felons are in jail awaiting sentencing.