Jailbreak Casts Spotlight on Budget Woes : Prisons: Sheriff’s officials say overcrowding and cutbacks are the underlying causes behind the recent escape of 14 inmates. Situation is not expected to improve, authorities say.

The dramatic escape last week of 14 inmates from the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, which triggered a massive manhunt that has yet to snare two of the escapees, has drawn attention to budget cuts and overcrowding affecting Los Angeles County’s jail system.

It is a bad situation that is not expected to improve, county officials say, noting a projected budget deficit of as much as $1 billion next fiscal year, even as jails are bursting at the seams with no end of more inmates in sight.

“I don’t think the Sheriff’s Department can sustain any more cuts,” said Lori Howard, chief deputy to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area around Pitchess jail. “But the problem is that the cuts have to come from somewhere. . . . It’s the $1-billion question.”

The jailbreak at the sprawling maximum-security complex in Castaic was due in part to human error, Sheriff Sherman Block acknowledged last week. But he also emphasized during a meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that overcrowding was an underlying factor, and that the escape underscored the way budget cuts have affected county jails.

Officials have cited a number of problems because of budget cuts and overcrowding:

* Though the county’s eight jails were built to hold a total of 12,000 inmates, they now house more than 19,000 men and women.

* Budget cuts, particularly in the probation department, have left many inmates in legal limbo as they await pre-sentencing reports and other paperwork required to move through the system. As many as 70% of county inmates, or an estimated 13,300, are awaiting trial or sentencing.

* Although early release programs have been expanded recently, enabling 4,200 inmates instead of 1,500 inmates to serve their sentences in supervised work, the county jail system continues to hold about 1,000 more prisoners than it is mandated to house.

* Because of the “three strikes” legislation that sends felons to prison for life, inmates are more violent and increasingly desperate enough to take greater risks--such as attempting to break out of jail.

“The kind of inmate has changed,” Block said. “Now you have people facing significant prison terms if they are convicted. They require a higher level of security.”

While the statewide guard-to-inmate ratio is 1 to 5, it is 1 to 12 in the county.

The circumstances surrounding the escape from Pitchess early April 30, he said, are a testament to the county system’s problems.

The opportunity for a breakout developed in February during one of the facility’s frequent racial brawls, when a hole several inches wide was cut in the drywall ceiling of a dormitory with a jail-made weapon.

After the disturbance was quelled by deputies, a Sheriff’s Department maintenance crew repaired the hole by covering it with a steel plate screwed into the ceiling. It was only a temporary measure and maintenance workers intended to return to cover the plate with drywall.

For 2 1/2 months, the steel plate at the back of the room was a temptation for the dormitory’s 96 inmates. Everyone else had apparently forgotten about it because, as Block acknowledged, the repairmen never returned to finish their task.

“These guys, because they have to stay in the dormitory all day, they have nothing but time to think of ways to escape,” said Mark Squier, chief of the custody division for the northern county, including the Pitchess facilities.

Sheriff’s officials believe that for three successive nights--between the last head count at 10 p.m. and the first check at 6 a.m.--prisoners communicated silently, using hand signals to send information about the assigned watch deputy and whether he was paying attention to them.

The prisoners, apparently using crude tools they made themselves, were able to loosen the screws that held the steel plate in place, and then, to widen the hole. They concealed their work by replacing the plate.

On the night of the escape, 1,629 inmates were staying in a section of Pitchess designed for 768--the section where the escape occurred. And in the dormitory where the escape took place, one sheriff’s deputy was responsible for keeping an eye on 96 allegedly sleeping inmates.

Still, Block said, the lack of deputies in the dormitory did not play a role in the escape. While testifying before the Board of Supervisors, Block pointed to overcrowding, structural deficiencies at the jail--including the lack of alarms and cameras--and “the kinds of individuals that make up our inmate population.”

When the jail was built in 1987, the dormitory was intended to contain a single level of beds. Over the years, as it became necessary to house more inmates, the jail replaced the regular beds with bunks.

Those bunks provided prisoners with a virtual ladder, enabling the prisoners to stand on a top bunk and climb out of the hole undetected.

Block also maintained that the actions of sheriff’s deputies, who have recaptured 12 of the 14 inmates, have “been a source of great pride.”

But what particularly bothers Block is that one of the escapees--a murder suspect who has since been caught--had been in the county jail system for 2 1/2 years. Of the 14 escapees, 11 had not yet been tried for their crimes. The other three had been sentenced and were awaiting transfer to state prison.

“What is happening,” Block said, “is that because of budget cuts the probation department is not able to process the paperwork fast enough so we can get these guys out of our jails and into state prison.”

In the past, the probation department has been able to write the required probation and pre-sentencing reports in 14 days. But Trula Worthy-Clayton, head of adult services at the probation department, said that time frame will probably double to 28 or 30 days because of impending budget cuts.

The probation department’s budget has shrunk from $250 million two years ago to $193 million this year. The projected budget for next fiscal year is $174 million. So instead of 313 investigators writing reports, Worthy-Clayton might have only 69.

The Sheriff’s Department has also felt the pinch and in March was forced to close a minimum-security section at the Pitchess complex and the jail at Biscailuz Center in East Los Angeles.

After the escape, the Board of Supervisors voted to have the county’s chief administrative officer find $200,000 to pay for razor wire for fences, alarm systems and cameras in the prison yard.

Although Block said he was confident that the extra security will make the jail safer, he said there is no such thing as a sure thing.

“Even if we had all the money in the world,” he said, “we couldn’t build a jail you can’t break out of, because there’s no such thing.”