Officials Seek State Surplus Funds to Run Jail Towers

Standing outside the recently completed--but still empty--Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles, a phalanx of local officials demanded Wednesday that some of the state’s budget surplus be given to the county, which lacks funds to operate the facility.

City Councilwoman Laura Chick said state officials should tap into their estimated $250-million surplus so the county can begin running the 4,100-bed jail and stop what she called the revolving doors of justice.

“Sadly today we have this $373-million, state-of-the-art prison, which is sitting here empty and is only being used as a tourist attraction,” Chick said. “But the only people not taking the tour are the criminals.”

But the appeal of the local officials--including City Atty. James K. Hahn, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky--failed to pick up much support Wednesday.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s office said it is nonsense that the state has a huge surplus. “There is no pot of money sitting there waiting to tap into to open Twin Towers,” said Sean Walsh, a Wilson press secretary.

Walsh said that while the state is currently $331 million above projected revenues, the money could easily disappear. “Whether the state has a surplus is contingent on if the Senate Democrats are willing to freeze current welfare levels,” he said.

If welfare payments are frozen, Walsh said, decisions will then be made on how to spend any surplus money, and opening Twin Towers is a top priority.

Even Chick’s City Council colleagues balked at a proposal to seek the state funds for the Twin Towers, saying surplus state money should not be spent solely on jails.

“We have to deal with the people who can’t eat, who aren’t employed, who don’t have an education,” Councilman Richard Alatorre said. “And we’re going to spend more money to incarcerate them instead of educate them? That’s backward.”

Still, Chick said, something has to be done about the county’s overcrowded jails.

Police officers and sheriff’s deputies are arresting car thieves, burglars and child molesters who end up being released early, or in some cases, serve no time at all because of overcrowded jail conditions, Chick said. City Councilman Marvin Braude also voiced concerns that soon there may not even be enough space in the county’s jails to house people who commit domestic violence.

“We need to open this jail to send the right message [to criminals],” Garcetti said. “If you commit a crime, you’re going to serve the time.”

Momentum to open Twin Towers has been building since January’s rioting at the Pitchess jail, which authorities say was caused in part by overcrowding throughout the county detention system. Sheriff’s officials contend that opening Twin Towers would give them a place to house thousands of maximum security inmates and help control the violence.

Construction of Twin Towers, across the street from the Men’s Central Jail, began in March 1991 and was completed last October. But the jail, which was funded primarily by two voter-approved state bond issues, has languished because the county lacks the $100 million to staff and run the facility.

County officials blame the state for withholding about $1 billion in local property tax revenues over the last three years, money they contend could have been used to operate Twin Towers.

Without help from the state there is no way the county will be able to open the jail, Yaroslavsky said at the press conference. He added that the jail sits empty even as Wilson is contemplating a 15% tax cut for the wealthiest Californians and the state has a surplus. That money, he said, should be reinvested in California’s cities and counties to make streets safer.

To get the message out, Chick introduced a resolution last week urging Wilson and the Legislature to use state surplus funds to open the jail.

But when she took the cause to her more liberal colleagues on the City Council on Wednesday, they refused to endorse the single-focus appeal for jail funds, instead sending a missive to Wilson demanding that he use the surplus either for jails or to help local governments provide public education, facilities for the homeless, welfare or health care.

“We need to be encouraging the state to find money to feed children, to put a roof over their heads, not to handle unopened police facilities and unopened jails,” Councilwoman Rita Walters told her fellow members before the 13-0 vote on the expanded motion. “Because if we don’t do the one, we’ll surely have to do the other.”

A broad coalition of council members agreed with Walters that prevention should be the focus rather than law enforcement.

“We have a multiplicity of needs that have to be addressed, and that $250 million of surplus ought to be spread across the multitude of needs,” Councilman Richard Alarcon said.

Chick’s chief of staff, Karen Constine, said broadening the motion was no problem, and Chick herself urged the council to follow through on its prevention themes when discussing the city’s own budget later this month.

“This is representing the broader view of the council, but it doesn’t diminish the need to [open] the jail,” Constine said. If the Sheriff’s Department receives funding for the jail, it is estimated it will take six months to get the facility up and running.