Jail Fees Cited in Drug Users’ Fast Release : Booking policy: Oxnard and Ventura police say the suspects are being given more opportunities to commit crimes. But they don’t have any statistics to back up their belief.

An increasing number of drug users arrested on cocaine and heroin charges are being released in a matter of hours instead of confined for longer periods in Ventura County Jail because of the county’s new booking fee policy, police officials said Wednesday.

Police in Oxnard and Santa Paula said the quicker releases are giving drug users who support their habits through burglary and shoplifting more opportunities to commit crimes. They said, however, that they have no statistics to back up their views that the policy might be adding to county crime totals.

Some of the county’s law enforcement agencies are releasing drug users arrested for being under the influence of drugs because city authorities are opposed to paying the county a $120-per-person County Jail booking fee. The fee went into effect a year ago.

Since the fees took effect, the number of prisoners booked into County Jail has dropped by 46%, with the cities of Ventura and Oxnard accounting for the biggest decline, officials said.

In July of last year, Oxnard booked 355 prisoners into County Jail, compared with 99 in May of this year. Meanwhile, the city of Ventura booked 227 prisoners in July, 1990, compared with 89 this past May.

The drop in booking figures signals a rise in the number of drug users on the streets.

“They certainly have more time to commit burglaries and petty thefts that they wouldn’t have if they were in jail,” Oxnard Police Chief Robert Owens said. “They have time to continue this active role in the criminal culture.”

Santa Paula Police Cmdr. Bob Gonzales said drug users returning to the streets might be responsible for some of the burglaries and thefts in the city.

“It’s safe to say a person not being detained there is out doing something wrong,” he said.

Police officials said they have been declining to pay booking fees primarily because of budget problems. Oxnard Chief Owens said his financially strapped city already owes the county $225,000 in booking fees despite the policy of releasing more drug offenders.

“I think we had to expand the risks we were taking,” Owens said. “Generally, encouraging watch commanders and custody officers to release when possible to do so brings a risk.”

Owens said he expected to be faced with such problems when the Ventura County Board of Supervisors imposed the fees in September, making them retroactive to July 1, 1990. Others also said they had feared that the controversial fee might result in drug users being released earlier than before.

“It might save a little revenue to the cities up front, but it ultimately costs the residents of those communities a whole lot more money in stolen property and increased insurance rates,” Ventura County Assistant Sheriff Richard Bryce said. “It’s a short-term fix to a long-term problem. That was one of our concerns from day one for charging for booking.”

Owens and others would like to see the fee abolished. The 10 cities in the county are refusing to pay the fees and have filed a lawsuit against the county over the booking fees and a separate fee that the county charges cities, schools and other special districts for the cost of collecting property taxes.

For now, however, city police departments said they are dealing with the fees as best they can.

Officials of some cities, including Port Hueneme and Simi Valley, said they have always used County Jail conservatively, issuing citations whenever possible. But authorities in other departments said they are now citing and releasing suspects they once routinely took to jail.

Santa Paula police now cite and release nearly all individuals suspected of misdemeanor offenses, Gonzales said. That includes some people arrested for battery, drunk driving and assaults, he said.

Santa Paula police recently picked up a man on suspicion of possessing narcotics. After he was released from the police station, he went home and beat his wife, Gonzales said. Officers arrested him again that night for spousal battery.

In another case, a man was released about two hours after being arrested for stealing items from a car. He then found the man who he believed had tipped the police off to the theft and beat him, Gonzales said.

“In both these cases there was a lot of hostility,” Gonzales said. “Had they been able to sit in jail and think about the wrong they did rather than strike out in anger, those two people wouldn’t have been injured.”

Santa Paula officers once tried to send everybody arrested for being under the influence of cocaine and heroin to jail. No more.

“A lot of people who are strung out on heroin or cocaine, they are parasites in our society,” Gonzales said. “If you can inconvenience those people and keep them from being on the street, we’d have a better community for it.”

County Jail has a policy against releasing people booked for being under the influence of drugs on their recognizance because of fears of what they might do in the community, Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Kemp said.

Many of the drug users brought into County Jail cannot post bail so they stay in jail until their court appearance and sentencing, authorities said.

“There was concern that most hypes make their money in order to pay for their drugs by some illegal means, like burglaries and thefts,” Kemp said. “We felt that immediate release of the drug user upon the street might contribute to additional violations.”

But some law enforcement officers argue that booking into County Jail--where a person may post bail or be released on his own recognizance--is no guarantee of a lengthy stay for most misdemeanors. On a typical night at the jail, someone who qualifies to be released on their own recognizance would stay about three hours in jail, Kemp said.

“It’s no panacea,” Ventura Police Sgt. Carl Handy said. “A misdemeanor going to jail is going to be released in two or three hours.”

But even the extra two or three hours it might take to process suspected criminals through the jail system is a bonus, some law enforcement officers said.

Oxnard officers also used to routinely book suspects under the influence of cocaine and heroin in County Jail to allow more time for the drug to wear off, Owens said. Now, most are cited and released.

“It’s against the law to be out in public under the influence of these things, and us releasing them while they still may be under the influence may not be appropriate,” Owens said. “Now we just take the risk out of economic necessity.”

The department also no longer routinely books people suspected of assault with a deadly weapon or assault with the intent to commit great bodily injury, Owens said.

Most of the changes in the city of Ventura have come with nonviolent misdemeanors such as drunken driving, being under the influence and petty theft, Ventura Police Sgt. Carl Handy said.

The Board of Supervisors agreed last week to have county officials meet with the mayors of the county’s 10 cities to discuss the fees. The recommendation for the meeting between county and city officials came from Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee, who has said the fee is positive because it has helped reduce overcrowding in the jail.

But Erickson Kildee said the group should discuss the ramifications of the fee if they believe that it is causing problems in communities.

“If the Legislature has caused us to do something terrible, let’s look at that,” she said. “It appears to me, it’s a good thing.”