S.D. Parole Violators Stay Free Under Court’s Order : Jails: As many as 70 a week will remain on streets in move to relieve the severe crowding of county’s jails.

The San Diego County Sheriff, responding to a court order to reduce the number of inmates held in county jails, has stopped admitting as many as 70 parole violators each week, who before had been held in county jails before being transferred to state prisons.

Although law enforcement officials will try to jail parole violators considered a threat to the public, most of the others will remain free.

El Cajon Superior Court Judge James A. Malkus ordered the county last month to no longer hold parole violators who in the past were jailed “as a courtesy” to the state Department of Corrections, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Glenn Revell said Wednesday.

“This is part of our attempt to hold our (jail) population at what the court has described as a constitutionally acceptable level,” Revell said. “We don’t have room or funding” to house parolees. If we had one or the other, we’d make adjustments. But, the way the judge’s order reads, we’re not legally obligated to take them.”

A Department of Corrections spokesman said Wednesday that local law enforcement officers are prohibited from transporting parole violators directly to the state’s correctional facility in Otay Mesa.

“It’s not feasible for local law enforcement to directly book people” at the Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa, the spokesman said. “It’s something that was considered and rejected. It’s a complex issue.”

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen on Monday ordered his officers not to make arrests that are based solely on warrants issued by the state Department of Corrections or the state Youth Authority Department. Burgreen on Wednesday described the situation as “ludicrous.”

“Parolees who are in violation of their parole from state prison and who are on the street cannot be booked into San Diego County jails,” Burgreen said Wednesday. “Our officers must allow them to continue walking on the street, even if they have violated parole, because there is no room in jail.

However, authorities at the city, county and state level on Wednesday maintained that law enforcement officers will continue to arrest dangerous parole violators who are a threat to society.

“We’re really going to look at (warrants) on a case-by-case basis,” said John Dowling, a Corrections Department parole administrator whose staff oversees an estimated 3,800 parolees in San Diego County. “When we know that a person is capable of really doing some harm, we’re going to get them off the street as soon as possible,” Dowling said.

Law enforcement officials on Wednesday agreed the court order would take some teeth out of the parole program.

“It’s not something we like to see,” Dowling said. “The threat (the state holds over parolees) is returning them to prison . . . and the first step toward that is usually putting them in jail and then moving them from jail to prison at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, we’re losing that ability.”

“Now there’s no serious consequence” facing many parole violators,” said Revell of the Sheriff’s Department. One East county parole officer complained to Revell that “we used to be holding a medicine ball over (parolees). Now we’ve got a nerf ball.”

Malkus’ order means that 50 to 70 parole violators each week won’t be jailed after warrants are issued for parole violations, Dowling said.

While state, county and local law enforcement officers will continue to arrest the most dangerous parolees, parolees guilty of lesser offenses won’t be arrested.

Arrests will probably not occur, for example, to parolees who fail to report to a parole officer, submit a “dirty” urinalysis and fail to take part in required occupational or social service program, Dowling said.

The decision to no longer house parole violators in county jails was the most recent example of how crowded jails are threatening to incapacitate the county’s criminal justice system.

Malkus has issued an order requiring the county to reduce the number of inmates jammed into its severely crowded jails throughout the county.

The county previously had held parole violators for two working days while parole case workers prepared paper work needed to transfer prisoners to state prisons.

But in July, Malkus ruled the county was “not obligated” to house parole violators because they are the state’s responsibility, according to Alex Landon, an attorney who is representing the American Civil Liberties Union in two court suits that generated the court order to reduce inmate populations.

Although the county’s jails continue to house inmates arrested for felonies, most people arrested on misdemeanor charges are freed. The county, however, does jail people arrested on misdemeanor crimes such as domestic violence and some narcotics violations.

Although crowding is a problem at county jails around the state, the Department of Corrections has not been forced to release inmates from state prisons because of crowding, Dowling said. “We’re not yet in a position where we’ve been told to stop holding people,” Dowling said.

Burgreen said jail crowding has stymied attempts to reduce crime because many criminals “know nothing will happen to them. We have a difficult situation . . . in the city with the most overcrowded jails in the country.”

The court order “is going to have an obvious impact on the morale of officers,” said San Diego Police Department spokesman Dave Cohen. “They know certain people deserve to be behind bars so the judicial system can determine their fate.”

But, with the court order in effect, parole violators who are stopped for a minor traffic infraction will no longer be arrested and jailed on the parole warrant, Cohen said.