Deputies Stage Work Action at Jail in Bid for Pay Raise

Upping the ante in their quest for a new contract, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies assigned to the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles staged a work action Monday, taking more time than usual putting prisoners on buses to go to court hearings.

Sheriff’s custody chief Barry King estimated that inmates were delayed an average of half an hour in arriving at court because deputies--following the “letter of the law”--allowed prisoners longer than usual for breakfast.

Under department policy, deputies are required to give inmates 15 minutes for meals, but jailers often ask prisoners to eat within five to eight minutes to ensure that they arrive at court on time. To make a point to management that they want a pay raise, “the inmate feeding was done exactly by policy,” King said.

At Municipal Court, clerks reported that an unusually high number of inmates were “miss outs”--or absent--for their morning arraignments. In Division 30, for example, about a dozen prisoners did not show up for their hearings.

Deputies represented by the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs are seeking a 5% raise.