County Reports Drop in Work-Release Fugitives

As it takes steps to overhaul its beleaguered jail work-release program, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says it has sharply reduced the number of delinquent inmates by aggressively tracking down skip-outs and by dramatically cutting back on the number of convicts allowed to serve their sentences in the community.

Sheriff’s officials say some 700 work-release participants are currently on the lam, compared with more than 2,000 delinquents seven months ago, when The Times reported that the Sheriff’s Department had been routinely placing violent and repeat offenders on work-release without even cursory reviews of their criminal records.

By beefing up its squad of deputies who pursue fugitives, the Sheriff’s Department says, it has managed to locate hundreds of missing inmates since January, rousting many from their homes at all hours of the night and day.

“The individuals knew that for such a long time, no one did anything about [the delinquents],” said Capt. David Betkey, who is in charge of the reform efforts. “The word is getting out. We’re rounding people up.”

Under pressure from the County Board of Supervisors to fix the program, sheriff’s officials joined forces with the county Probation Department to determine who qualifies to work off their sentences at primarily government-run job sites. By excluding certain categories of offenders--mostly recent drug users--they’ve cut down on the number of high flight risks, they say, although that has also meant a significant reduction in the number of work-release participants, contributing to further overcrowding in the county’s teeming jails.

“I would like to see the numbers of the people on work release and other community-based alternatives to custody much higher, given the low risk associated with such individuals and the continuing chronic overcrowding,” said Special Counsel Merrick Bobb, appointed by the Board of Supervisors to track problems in the Sheriff’s Department. “I am very guarded with respect to progress in custody. Nonetheless, it’s good to see some kind of movement.”

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As of Monday, there were about 550 convicts actively enrolled in the work-release program, compared to more than 1,000 at the same time last year, according to the sheriff’s work-release staff.

In the last two months, after retooling of the program, only 1% of participants have been skipping out, sheriff’s officials say.

In addition to the more than 670 convicts still missing from previous years, only 30 who skipped out this year remain on the lam, according to authorities.

Sheriff’s Department officials say they plan to eventually increase the number of work-release participants back to 1,000--something the Probation Department hopes to help accomplish as it becomes comfortable with its newly implemented screening process, which includes searching numerous county databases to check for warrants and prior offenses of inmates considered for the program.

More than 25,000 convicted inmates were allowed out on work release for varying amounts of time during 1995 and the first half of 1996. In the first half of 1997, only 2,700 convicts were granted work release.

In addition to making the fixes, officials are issuing electronic monitoring bracelets to all work-release participants to help ensure that they return to their homes after completing their daily work assignments. The sheriff is also offering self-esteem classes, in conjunction with the anti-gang group Amer-I-Can, to a select number of young offenders.

“We were able to bring this program up at the same time that both the Sheriff’s and Probation Department were bringing on new staff, opening [the new] Twin Towers [jail] and closing down Sybil Brand [women’s jail],” said David Davies, who is in charge of the Probation Department’s pretrial services division. “We’re working side-by-side, and the problems are being dealt with immediately.”

A Times investigation last year found that although work release was intended for low-risk inmates, offenders with dozens of convictions--for such crimes as drug dealing, robbery and assault--had routinely been freed. Thousands of participants--as many as one in three--had simply skipped out on their work assignments, and many had gone on to commit more serious crimes even before their original sentences ended. The Times successfully sued the Sheriff’s Department in order to receive the identities of the work-release fugitives, which the sheriff and the county counsel sought to keep secret, citing privacy concerns.

In the wake of The Times’ report, the sheriff ordered an overhaul of the program. First, recent drug offenders were banned from future participation, since they were deemed most likely to flee. Next, the department turned over the responsibility for screening and evaluating work-release candidates to the Probation Department, which had a far superior system of weeding out convicted criminals considered too dangerous to be sent back to the streets.

Betkey, who had been working on special projects for Assistant Sheriff Michael Graham, was brought in to orchestrate the fixes. Under his direction, the department formed a team of eight deputies, a sergeant and a lieutenant to find delinquents. Since December, more than 1,500 skip-outs have been apprehended, officials said.

“I believe we have made great strides in re-engineering the work-release program,” Betkey said. “We are very much on track.”

Said sheriff’s Custody Chief Barry King: “I think we have now turned the corner, and many of the problems we have had in the past are being solved.”

Once a glaring example of how the sheriff had failed to come to grips with a vast array of issues facing the county’s overburdened jail system, the department now hopes to use the work-release program as a model for future reforms.

Over the next few weeks, sheriff’s and probation officials will begin expanding the county’s house arrest and work-furlough programs, using a variety of electronic monitoring devices to keep track of inmates released early from jail.

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By placing lower-risk prisoners on monitored programs in the community, officials said, the department will have more jail space to keep the most violent convicts in custody longer. Currently, most convicts serve about 25% of their jail sentences because of overcrowding.

“We anticipate that this is going to be part of a larger program which will free up sorely needed hard-lock beds,” said Undersheriff Jerry Harper.

In another reform effort at the urging of county supervisors, the department has contracted to send about 20 youths each month to the Amer-I-Can program, a self-help group started by former National Football League star Jim Brown.

Last week, the first 11 work-release participants graduated from a two-week Amer-I-Can seminar, designed to help young offenders control their anger, learn self-esteem and resist the lure of gangs. After participants complete the classes, they must then finish serving their sentences at work sites.

The program--which is costing the county $50,000 for a six-month pilot--is being paid for largely from the office budgets of county Supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Mike Antonovich. A second class is set to start next week.

“This is a different approach,” Antonovich said. “It’s the kind of program that can change hearts and minds.”

Said Harper: “What the program does is give [the youths] another perspective about values in life so at least they have a choice.”

Work-release participant Guadalupe Andrade--a former gang member who has been in and out of jail since he was 12--was among the first 11 inmates to go through the program. At a recent graduation ceremony at Brown’s house in the Hollywood Hills, Andrade, 23, held his 11-month-old daughter in his arms and pledged to turn around his life.

“It’s made an impact on me,” said Andrade, who is serving a sentence for DUI. “One thing that works with me is having someone pushing me; otherwise I slack off a lot. Hopefully with this program, I won’t do that anymore. I’ve been taking responsibility for my actions and what I have to do to get on with my life.”