LOCAL ELECTIONS PROPOSITION A : Tax Hike Sought to Bail Out Jail System

In Los Angeles County, being sentenced to 30 days in County Jail means serving 11.

That, says Sheriff Sherman Block, is why he is seeking voter approval Nov. 6 of Proposition A, a half-cent sales tax increase to fund construction and operation of new jails and juvenile halls.

The measure is designed to relieve the jail overcrowding that has forced the early release since mid-1988 of 325,644 people accused or convicted of misdemeanors. Supporters say it also would free up money for strapped county services, such as health care for the poor.

Opponents, including county Supervisor Pete Schabarum, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and the Los Angeles Taxpayers Assn., object that the measure is an end run around Proposition 13’s requirements for two-thirds voter approval for tax hikes.

“They ought to build jails and juvenile detention facilities by setting priorities with the money they got,” said Jay Curtis, president of the Los Angeles Taxpayers Assn.

The measure, if it passes, would raise $423 million a year for 30 years. Much of the money would allow the county to move forward with a 20-year, $3.5-billion plan to increase capacity to 43,230 by building 12 new jails and expanding a number of existing facilities. The Board of Supervisors would decide where to build the jails and a five-member commission would oversee spending.

A June, 1988, court order limits the population in the county’s existing jails to 25,338.

“Right now, if we were to house the people who are being released, our daily population would be 34,000,” Block said. The county’s 10 jails generally hold people awaiting trial for every kind of crime and people convicted of misdemeanors.

For a time, a person had to be sentenced to 37 days in order to serve one day in jail. But Block last year changed the policy so that “no one was getting off scot-free,” said Lt. Jim Oneal, operations lieutenant at the Inmate Reception Center at Central Jail.

Now, after a judge imposes a sentence, a computer at the Inmate Reception Center calculates the actual time to be served. Each inmate is automatically given credits for good behavior, work detail and time spent in court. Inmates are then released after completing 65% of their remaining sentences, which can work out to 11 days in jail for every 30.

All persons arrested for misdemeanors carrying less than $7,500 bail are released on their promise to appear at a court hearing. About half never appear, Block said.

At the county’s juvenile halls, hundreds of youth offenders are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor because of crowding.

Barry Nidorf, the county’s chief probation officer, said that if Proposition A passes, revenues also will be used for alternatives to incarceration, such as expanding a program under which people undergo an electronic form of house arrest wearing radio-transmitting devices strapped to their ankles.

Richard B. Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer, said, “We need to give our jail system some kind of independent revenue source if we want to be able to maintain any of the other services of county government.”

The proposition is the result of counties’ successful lobbying in Sacramento for legislation allowing for passage of a jail tax by a simple majority. The law was struck down by two Superior Court judges but was upheld by an appeals court. An appeal to the state Supreme Court is expected.

Jail costs have soared from $76 million in 1980 to $348 million this year, eating up a larger share of the county budget, said Block, who attributes the increase to the explosive growth in drug-related crimes.

Also on the Nov. 6 ballot are two other propositions that would affect Los Angeles jail funding.

Proposition 147 is a proposed $225-million state bond that would provide money for building county jails and juvenile halls. No specific amount is earmarked for Los Angeles County and, Block pointed out, the state measure provides money only for jail construction, not operation.

The sheriff opposes Proposition C, another half-cent sales tax increase on the ballot, which would fund transit projects. If Propositions A and C pass, a half-cent sales tax increase would be divided equally between jails and transit.

“Community safety is a far more basic need at this time than additional transportation,” Block said.

Block and the four county supervisors who support Proposition A have chipped in $5,000 apiece from their reelection funds to promote the measure through radio commercials in the final days before the election. Opponents have raised no money to campaign.