Supervisors Vote to Open Twin Towers

After years of planning and many months more of embarrassing political hand-wringing, the Los Angeles County supervisors voted Thursday to finally open the state-of-the-art Twin Towers jail amid bursts of self-congratulation and visible relief.

The unanimous vote to open the 4,100-bed facility as early as January came after a brief discussion that largely avoided the political problems the towers have caused the supervisors and Sheriff Sherman Block.

For the past year, the supervisors and Block have said they desperately need to open the $373-million jail to reduce the rampant overcrowding that is sending inmates back onto the streets in record time--but that they lack the money to do so.

The sheriff has insisted since the jail was finished last fall that it would cost $100 million or more to open it, and that he could not find the necessary funds in his $1.1-billion budget.

Before voting, the supervisors paused so each of them could praise Block for what they said were his “creative” efforts in finding a way to open the jail for about $75 million.

Block in turn praised county officials, saying the plan he unveiled last month to open the facility was “a team effort.”

“I think that sometimes we are motivated in opening up Twin Towers for political purpose [rather] than for a . . . change that people should see in the community,” Supervisor Gloria Molina said. “But there is going to be a net change. . . . What we are on our way to is a more comprehensive management of our felon population.”

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke added: “I’m just delighted to see that we are moving forward.”

Under the plan approved Thursday, the sheriff plans to lease out about 1,900 beds at various county jail facilities to state and federal law enforcement agencies, generating about $37 million in revenue. In addition, the supervisors agreed to give Block an additional $16 million. Block anticipates saving millions more within his budget by closing two other jail facilities temporarily and shifting those staffers and operating funds to the towers. Less than half of the new beds will actually be available for county use.

Block appeared relieved as well. “This has been going on actually for five years, [so] I feel very good,” Block said after the vote. “I think the community is going to be the beneficiary of this.”

There is much still to be done before the jail can be opened, officials acknowledged.

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It will take months to get the jail ready and to train staff how to operate all of its sophisticated equipment, said Block’s chief of administrative services, Fred Ramirez.

“I have to worry about the logistics--how are we going to get all the computers and the staff and everything else in there by January?” Ramirez asked. “It’s tough. There is a lot involved there. How do you get this to operate smoothly to eliminate the risk of escapes?”

The plan to open the massive facility also hinges on Block’s ability to successfully negotiate the leases of the jail beds with the state and federal governments. So far they have not made any commitments.

The sheriff told the board Thursday that he has verbal commitments from state and federal officials, prompting the supervisors to approve the plan “contingent on receiving state and/or federal revenue.”

In an interview, state Department of Corrections Director James H. Gomez said he and Gov. Pete Wilson’s aides have told county officials they support the concept of leasing as many jail beds as Block can provide. Most of the beds the state would lease would be at the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, prompting about 1,600 county inmates at that complex to be moved to the Twin Towers at the eastern edge of downtown.

“I’m ready . . . to sit down and negotiate,” Gomez said, adding he will be able to sign a contract in time for at least one of the towers to open in January, as Block has proposed.

“The governor is very concerned that we assist L.A. in opening that jail, and we think this leasing of space will give them the revenue they need to open the Twin Towers. It will also give us relief on our prison overcrowding issue.”

Gomez said the state prison system is at 185% of capacity with 144,000 inmates and that the state already contracts with Alameda County for 750 beds at about $57 a day.

Under Block’s plan, the county would shift prisoners throughout the jail system to make room at Central Jail and the now-closed Mira Loma jail so that the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service could lease out the space.

The sheriff also would expand the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood by adding 500 beds, and move as many as 2,000 female inmates from the Sybil Brand Institute for Women to one of the Twin Towers so the aging women’s jail can be refurbished.

In a letter to Block, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said she is looking to lease as many as 2,700 beds nationwide, and that she has a “genuine interest” in discussing the issue further. Block told the board that the INS chief will be sending a top aide from Washington within the next few weeks to begin negotiations.

To make the plan work, Block has said he can also cut $25 million in costs by scaling back medical services and operations at the inmate reception center at Twin Towers and by replacing many expensive sworn deputies at the jail with lesser-paid civilian custodial assistants.

Not only will the plan create 1,818 more beds for county inmates, he said, it will also lessen racial tensions and violence by moving many serious offenders from barracks-style housing at Pitchess to individual cells at Twin Towers.

Block said 1,000 beds will be reserved for those convicted of misdemeanors, who he said now commit additional crimes with impunity because they know there is no room for them in the jails. “Now they will have to think about it,” Block said, “because there will be a place to put them.”

But the sheriff again conceded that opening Twin Towers under the current scenario won’t alleviate jail overcrowding enough to prevent the early release of inmates.

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After the vote, Gordana Marie Swanson, a candidate for supervisor in the 4th District, issued a statement excoriating the supervisors for failing to open the jail earlier, and for opening it now without guarantees for the $37 million in lease revenues.

Swanson, the former Rolling Hills mayor who is running for Supervisor Deane Dana’s conservative South Bay seat against Dana’s Chief Deputy Don Knabe, also questioned how Block could cut $25 million off the cost of opening the jail so suddenly, just weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

“It is very disturbing as a taxpayer that we have paid for the towers and nothing has happened,” said Swanson.

“It’s really become an embarrassment,” she said. “Then the sheriff comes up with this scheme--this election-time scam that is put together in a helter-skelter way that has no long-term solutions. I am very skeptical of what they are telling us. The numbers are shifting all over.”