Sheriff Gets More Time to Prevent Early Jail Releases

Sheriff Brad Gates, who last month was found guilty on 17 counts of contempt for illegally releasing prisoners early from his jails, Friday was granted until August to come up with a plan to reduce early releases.

Presiding Municipal Court Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. had ordered Gates to come up with such a plan by Friday. But Gates and his attorney said they needed more time to arrange space for the 300 to 500 more prisoners the judge wants the sheriff to house in already overcrowded jails.

“The sheriff has been moving ahead in good faith to try to find some way to solve this problem,” said James L. Turner, deputy county counsel, who represented Gates at the proceedings. “It’s going to take a little while more for any concrete plan to be submitted.”

Gates is scheduled to return to court Aug. 2.

On May 10, Stanford found Gates guilty of contempt for willfully and illegally releasing 17 prisoners charged with violent crimes or other offenses that should have kept them in jail under state law. It was the sheriff’s third contempt citation since 1985.

But instead of sentencing Gates to jail or fining him, Stanford ordered the sheriff to come up with a plan showing what he would do to cut down on the number of inmates who are released early. The Sheriff’s Department has been routinely releasing about 850 prisoners a week to relieve jail overcrowding.

Routinely, the department lops off 10% of the sentences of some inmates. Because of severe jail overcrowding, many of those prisoners are released an additional three to five days before even that shortened sentence is served.

The county’s jail system was built to hold 3,203 inmates but typically houses about 4,400.

Gates said after Friday’s brief hearing that his department is examining a variety of ways to accommodate more prisoners, including setting up more tents at the James A. Musick Branch Jail in Irvine, asking cities if they have room for county prisoners in their jails and placing more inmates on the electronic-bracelet monitoring program.

“We don’t have an answer to the jail (overcrowding) problem,” said Gates, who has long lobbied for construction of a new regional jail and was the chief force behind a jail tax initiative that was defeated by voters last month. “These are just Band-Aid solutions.

“The people of this county have to face that it’s going to take money and serious solutions if they want to continue having a safe environment,” he said.