Sheriff Closes 2 Facilities Due to Lack of Funds : Budget: 2,300 inmates at the minimum-security Ranch at Pitchess and Biscailuz Center have been released or transferred as department copes with a $7.3-million cut.

The Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho jail’s minimum-security facility, which had held prisoners since 1934, was empty Monday, the result of cost-cutting measures by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The minimum-security facility at Pitchess--known as the Ranch--as well as the Biscailuz Center in East Los Angeles, were closed Friday, Sheriff’s Department officials said.

About 2,300 inmates at the Ranch and Biscailuz either have been given early releases or were transferred to other facilities. About 9,500 medium- and maximum-security inmates remain at Pitchess.

At the Ranch, the mood Monday was somber--there were no prisoners and only a few guards.

On Monday afternoon, William Diehl, 55, a sheriff’s correctional officer for 29 years, was putting up a sign saying that the Ranch’s inmate services center, where prisoners bought supplies, had been moved.

“It’s the end of an era,” said Diehl, who has worked at the Ranch since 1978.

Cmdr. Robert Spierer, who oversees all five Pitchess facilities, said that because the Ranch had dodged the budget bullet and escaped closure so many times, many employees assumed the facility was safe.

“This really hit us, at least at my level, by surprise,” Spierer said.

Most deputies working at the Ranch facility will be reassigned to other jails or to vacant positions in the Sheriff’s Department, Spierer said. No layoffs have been announced.

One group that has shed no tears over the closing of the Ranch facility were its former prisoners, guards said.

“The whole topic of their conversation was who was getting released,” said Luis Najera, captain of the jail’s south facility.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had been releasing hundreds of inmates since March 2, the day Sheriff Sherman Block announced that he would close the Ranch facility and Biscailuz Center to make up for a $7.3-million cut in his department’s budget.

Although the releases provoked outrage from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Block stood firm.

*

The Sheriffs Department has said that most of the prisoners given early releases had been convicted of misdemeanors or were scheduled to be let go within 72 hours. Also, many of those let out of jail were assigned to work-release programs where they will serve more time than if they had remained in jail. Work programs must be completed and do not allow for early release or parole.

Over the years, Block has threatened several times to close down jails in response to budget cuts. Two years ago, the Mira Loma Jail in the Antelope Valley was shut and remains closed.

Sheriff’s officials said they do not expect the department to suffer further significant cuts, at least until the next round of county cutbacks.

The Ranch facility was built as a place where inmates convicted of drunk driving or other minor crimes would serve short sentences.

“This was a 300-man drunk farm,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Errol Van Horn of the Ranch facility. “This is where the public drunks were brought, and they worked in vegetable and fruit gardens.”