Drunk Driver, Jailed in Death, Released Early : Punishment: Lakeside woman whose release on electronic surveillance caused attacks on the system is let go because of crowded jails.

A convicted drunk driver who killed a Lakeside man and whose release from County Jail after 31 days caused an outcry over sentencing guidelines has completed her term 42 days early because of crowded jails.

Renee Reid, 19, of Lakeside was released from the County Jail for women at Las Colinas last Friday. Sheriff’s officials said she served all of her time required by law and ended up spending 130 days in jail out of a one-year sentence.

Under authority granted the county sheriff because of jail crowding, Reid had her term reduced 42 days. She was released July 31, but her term was due to expire in mid-September.

“It’s pretty disgusting that someone can serve such a short period of time for killing someone,” said Lori Cramer, the widow of 34-year-old Phil Cramer, who was struck by Reid’s car while biking with a friend in Lakeside. “What’s sad is that she was let out a day after the anniversary of Phil’s death.”

Originally sentenced late last year to 365 days in custody, Reid entered Las Colinas in mid-January after undergoing extensive surgery caused by the crash.

After 31 days, she was released to electronic home surveillance, a program that allows inmates to stay at home as long as they wear a bracelet electronically linked to a telephone. When someone strays too far from the phone, a probation officer is notified.

Once news of the release was published in The Times, including allegations that Reid may have been given preferential treatment because her father is a district attorney’s investigator, angry complaints flooded the Sheriff’s Department and the state attorney general’s office, the agency that prosecuted Reid.

Representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in San Diego County used Reid’s case to underscore their belief that drunk driving is taken too lightly by the judicial system and, often, by the public.

In April, state prosecutors petitioned the judge who sentenced Reid to order her back to jail, arguing that 66 days served at home under electronic surveillance was little more than a nuisance for a teen-ager who had access to a television, telephone and the comforts of home.

In a court hearing, Municipal Court Judge Terry Knoepp said he never intended for Reid to be placed on home detention and had assumed that she had been in Las Colinas all along. After 4 1/2 hours of testimony, Knoepp ordered her back to jail.

Sheriff Jim Roache, who had strongly defended his department’s decision to place Reid on electronic surveillance, scrapped home detention in June and returned those on the program to jail. He said his decision was purely financial--he had no money to keep the $200,000-a-year program alive--and had nothing to do with Reid.

Reid’s release July 31 was based on a formula that takes into account the current jail crowding. Although the women’s jail at Las Colinas was not over the court-ordered capacity the day Reid was released to home surveillance and was only seven inmates over the limit as of two weeks ago, sheriff’s officials are eager to release those deemed low-risk.

Under the formula, Reid’s sentence was reduced by 122 days, or one-third of her sentence, for being a trouble-free inmate. The court order reducing the population allows Roache to cut 10% off any sentence, or 37 days in Reid’s case. Roache also reduced the sentence by another five days, also allowed by state law.

Reid also got a three-day reduction under a state law that allows the time for family emergencies or for preparation “to return to the community.” She received one day’s credit from the court and another day’s credit because her sentence was to expire on a weekend.

In all, she spent 130 days in Las Colinas and 66 days on home surveillance.

“The system isn’t quite as punitive as people think it is or want it to be,” said Dick Ariessohn, who supervised inmates under electronic surveillance, including Reid. “People think spending a year in jail is a stiff sentence. We don’t have that luxury anymore in this system. It just isn’t possible given the jail population pressures.”

Gary Schons, the head of the state attorney general’s San Diego office who helped argue in court for Reid’s return to jail, said he was satisfied that Reid served her time under the terms of the jail-crowding order.

“I take the sheriff’s office at its word that she is out of jail because of the court order and her good-time credits,” he said. “We wanted her to serve her term, and it appears that she did so.”

Turning a Year Into 130 Days

Renee Reid, convicted last year of killing a bicyclist in Lakeside in a car accident, was sentenced to a year in County Jail at Las Colinas. She entered jail Jan. 17 and was released July 31, but spent 66 of those days in an electronic surveillance program. Below is a compilation of her jail time and the reductions to her sentence:

Days in jail: 130

Days under home detention: 66

Total time served: 196 days.

Reductions:

122 days in “good-time” credits, or one-third of the year’s sentence.

37 days for jail crowding as part of a state law under which the sheriff can trim 10% of the total sentence.

5 days under a separate state law for overcrowding.

3 days for a family emergency or to prepare for return to the community.

1 day court credit.

1 day because the sentence expired on a weekend and is readjusted to the previous Friday.

Total reductions: 169 days.

Source: San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.