Superior Court Judges Lash ACLU Over Jails : Overcrowding: Rights group accused of ‘perverse’ legal campaign in effort to solve situation in L.A. County lockups.

Launching their strongest broadside in a continuing war of words with the ACLU over jail overcrowding, Los Angeles County Superior Court judges have charged the civil liberties organization with engaging in a “perverse and insupportable” legal campaign that borders on “harassment.”

The strong language is contained in a 17-page report sent this week to federal Judge William P. Gray, who has presided over a decade-long series of lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California concerning County Jail overcrowding.

In one of the suits, initially filed 15 months ago, the ACLU has taken the 101-judge group first to federal court and then to state appeals courts to demand that the judges stop granting so many delays in criminal cases. The delays, the ACLU says, have a direct impact on the horrific state of overcrowding in the county’s jails.

Last month, the state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the ACLU of a state appellate court ruling refusing to order the Superior Court judges to change their policies for granting continuances.

But the ACLU, in its own report to Gray, indicated that it will continue to pursue the case through the state Superior Court system and, if need be later, in federal court again.

The ACLU has contended that Superior Court judges are failing to follow a 1985 state law that requires them to hold formal hearings on requests for continuances and to issue formal findings that trial delays are warranted only when there is “good cause.”

In an interview Friday, Superior Court Presiding Judge Richard P. Byrne said the prime concern of his judges in granting delays is whether good reasons exist.

“Writing it down is not as important as good cause itself,” he said.

In their 17-page report, the Superior Court judges called “the ACLU’s continuing campaign against the Los Angeles Superior Court . . . perverse and insupportable.”

“The lack of any factual or legal support for the threat to ‘reinstate’ the federal action suggests that any further litigation by the ACLU would be mere harassment,” continued the report, written on behalf of the judges by attorney Richard Schauer.

Byrne said Friday that the report’s language was blunt because, “you do arrive at a point where you feel the issue has really been decided, and that’s where we are now.”

Byrne suggested that the ACLU fight jail overcrowding by lobbying for more judges and courtrooms, rather than by criticizing those already on the bench.

But ACLU attorney John Hagar countered in an interview Friday that stricter adherence to the state law in granting continuances would result in “an efficient court system which helps people accused of crimes and also the victims of crimes.”

Hagar added that the judges’ tough language is “a note of desperation on their part.”

“They want to resolve this difficult public question through innuendoes and threats. People shouldn’t threaten the ACLU.

“We don’t need 100 judges mad against us. . . . But I do believe we are right,” he said.

Recent studies show that Superior Court judges are disposing of more cases than ever, according to the judges’ report. During the fiscal year that ended in June, 1989, the court’s criminal dispositions rose 15% above the previous fiscal year.

However, criminal complaints also climbed 13.1% during the same period. Jail overcrowding continues at an alarming rate.

During holiday periods, the population in the county’s 10 jail facilities has surged as much as 800 prisoners over the longstanding limit of 22,388 imposed by Judge Gray. The state-rated capacity for the county’s jails is only 13,464.

Since May, 1988, more than 100,000 convicted misdemeanor inmates have been released anywhere from 15 to 37 days early in order to ease the overcrowding.

But efforts to build new jail space near downtown Los Angeles have met neighborhood resistance. In addition, a new 2,800-prisoner, high-tech jail complex near Castaic, which was due to open last spring, remains unopen because the toilets will not flush and the security doors will not shut properly.