Jail Implements Quick Fixes to Avert Accidental Releases

Under pressure from the Board of Supervisors to prevent more inmates from being mistakenly released from Los Angeles County Jail, the Sheriff’s Department is moving forward with several short-term remedies to help fix its antiquated inmate-tracking system, officials said Tuesday.

However, county Chief Administrative Officer David E. Janssen warned the supervisors during their afternoon meeting that long-term upgrades to the trouble-plagued system will take up to six years--and possibly cost $1.5 million annually--to implement. “We are trying to solve a number of different problems,” Janssen said.

Since January 1995, 35 prisoners--including five homicide suspects--have been erroneously released from jail, prompting the supervisors to demand action. Sheriff’s officials also have disclosed that they have erroneously held more than 500 prisoners too long during the last two years.

The mistakes occurred when clerks in the document center--struggling to process more than 6,000 documents a day--input the wrong information in the computer system or could not keep up with the volume, officials said.

“[The system] is manual, it is archaic,” Janssen told the board.

Appointed by the supervisors to oversee plans to fix the problems, Janssen said the following short-term remedies are being implemented:

* Several document clerks have been stationed at the Criminal Courts Building to process inmates’ paperwork throughout the day instead of waiting until the documents arrive late in the evening at the Inmate Reception Center. Eventually, clerks will be stationed at other high-volume county courthouses, including Long Beach, Van Nuys and Torrance.

* A staff of senior clerks has been double-checking files on all inmates set to be released on five key charges--murder, rape, stalking, child molestation and spousal abuse--to make sure the paperwork has been processed properly.

* The Sheriff’s Department is improving lines of communication with the district attorney’s office to determine as soon as possible what charges have been filed against inmates.

Janssen said the long-term solutions--implementing one computer system linking the entire criminal justice system--could take years to build.

The supervisors said they wanted to get moving on long-term fixes as quickly as possible.

“I’m concerned about the time frame,” Supervisor Gloria Molina told Janssen. “If we wait five to six years for any computer program, by the time we get to year five, technology will have gone decades ahead.”