Work Furlough

Work-furlough programs are a viable and useful sentencing alternative for many misdemeanor defendants, but those programs must be run by county corrections officers if they are to be effective. Your recent news article (“For-Profit Jails, Once Loved, Now on Shaky Ground,” Feb. 20), failed to mention the county operated a 125-bed facility run by Cecil Steppe of the Probation Department. As an attorney who occasionally represents clients eligible for work furlough, I have always referred them to that facility, where I know they will receive appropriate counseling and other services supportive of their probation terms.

I must agree with the recent California attorney general opinion and Dist. Atty. Ed Miller’s view that work-furlough programs are legally required to be regulated by county corrections officers. This requirement is justified by complaints that operators of privately owned facilities have looked the other way when inmates violate probationary rules.

Citizens groups in the Southeast/Logan Heights communities, where many of these private facilities have been dumped, repeatedly complain about poorly supervised inmates walking the streets, drinking and offending area residents.

A private facility operator gets paid by the inmate for every night the court orders him to stay there. Returning violating probationers to county custody means a loss of income, pure and simple.

We cannot rely on private-operator assurances that they are running their facilities according to state regulations and with qualified personnel. The county-run facility is doing a good job with few complaints from area residents. If more beds are needed, more of these facilities should be provided.

DENISE MORENO DUCHENY

San Diego