L.A. Needs the New Jail Now --and Wilson Holds the Key : He should drop tax-cut plan and help the county instead

The Twin Towers, a new state-of-the-art jail in downtown Los Angeles, could house 4,100 inmates, but the bunks remain empty despite dangerous overcrowding in the county’s other lockups. The problem is money, and the situation has lasted six months, since the Towers were completed. The delay is absurd beyond measure.

Operating costs are a county responsibility, but the county argues that it is broke, in part because Sacramento has siphoned off $1 billion in property taxes in the last three years. That money should have come to the county. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and others are pressing Gov. Pete Wilson for state funds to operate the Towers, thus far without success. So the new jail stays closed. What a colossal waste.

Sheriff Sherman Block says he needs $100 million to meet the payroll and expenses to open and operate the jail. That’s not chicken feed, but the need is urgent. The Peter Pitchess Jail in Castaic, a onetime honor ranch that has been jury-rigged into a prison holding 10,000 inmates, has been the scene of racial brawls, riots and escapes over the last several years. The sheriff’s office insists these problems could be reduced by opening the new jail.

Pitchess was built decades ago for low-risk inmates. The aging facility’s current occupants include criminals convicted of violent offenses and awaiting cells in crowded state facilities. Other Pitchess inmates are awaiting trial, many of them considered dangerous. California’s tough new “three-strikes” policy has lengthened the wait in many cases as defense lawyers stall or refuse to plea-bargain in the face of possible life sentences for their clients.

County jails also house misdemeanor offenders, those convicted on such charges as drunk driving, car theft and burglary who are serving sentences of less than year. Unfortunately, they are rotated out before completing their sentences because of the shortage of beds and cell space. This is justice unfulfilled.

Just last week, Humberto Huelitl was released after serving only five days of a 30-day sentence for domestic abuse. Freed, he killed his pregnant, 16-year-old wife and her 2-year-old cousin before turning the gun on himself. This is the consequence of an early-release policy, one that operation of the Twin Towers would help avoid.

Money was an issue long before the end of construction of the Towers, which was financed by two state prison bond measures. Now-retired Supervisor Ed Edelman prophetically warned then that the financially strapped county wouldn’t be able to come up with the money needed to run the jail without cutting deeply into public health and other services.

County budget cuts were especially deep this fiscal year. Supervisors slashed the health care system, which was salvaged only by a bailout from Washington. The supervisors also reduced general welfare relief payments. But these actions have not been sufficient to open the doors of Twin Towers.

Sacramento is in better fiscal shape now, so good that Gov. Wilson wants to return some cash to wealthy Californians in the form of a 15% tax cut. Wilson’s spokesperson insists there would be a state surplus and perhaps money for the jail if the Democrats who control the state Senate would approve a freeze on welfare payments. Good budgeting requires hard trade-offs, but this should not be one of them. Nor should Los Angeles choose between hospital beds and jail bunks. This is a crisis. The empty jail is a testament to foolish politics. It should be opened without delay, and if it takes state funds to do the job they should be dispatched. Now.