Monitored Jail Inmates Too Close for Some

Prompted by neighbors’ complaints, Mayor Bob Kramer has called for the relocation of the local branch office of a company that monitors convicts by means of electronic ankle bracelets.

“We’ve told them their location is inappropriate; it’s near a residential area and a school,” said Kramer, who will meet with Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich in two weeks to ask that the program be moved.

The company, Sentinel Monitoring Corp., has a contract with the county to oversee offenders serving sentences at home while being monitored electronically.

As many as 60 participants in the program pass daily through Sentinel’s branch office at 1212 S. Victory Blvd. to have the bracelets put on or for mandatory biweekly appointments with a case manager.

About four blocks away is William McKinley Elementary School, at 349 W. Valencia Ave.

The purpose of the program is to ease overcrowding in the county jail, but Caroline Swaisgood is unhappy that the overflow has ended up on her street.

“The convicts showing up at that location are spilling out over the neighborhood,” she said. “They are a scary lot; they drive through the neighborhood and people are afraid.”

Swaisgood’s concern reached a high pitch when she looked out her window one day and saw a man and woman and several small children sprawled on a blanket on her front lawn, apparently waiting for a family member to finish an appointment at the branch office.

“I glared at them though the window . . . but I was too scared to go out,” said Swaisgood, adding that the unwanted visitors stayed for five hours.

Another neighbor, Howard Johnson, said he fears the convicts may commit crimes in the neighborhood en route to the office. “I’d hate for our community to be the first statistic,” he said.

Burbank Police Chief David Newsham said there have been no criminal incidents reported and few complaints.

Kramer and other city officials met with Sentinel last week to discuss the complaints.

“We told them it was a worthwhile program, but they ought to be at Pitchess [Detention Center] or at the county jail,” said Kramer.

Sentinel, which operates another branch office in Bellflower, opened the Burbank branch a little less than a year ago. The complaints started a few months ago, said Kramer.

The company handles all 800 offenders in the county’s electronic monitoring program. About half of them were sentenced to electronic monitoring by the courts; the other half are jail inmates who are being allowed to complete their sentence at home. The offenders are allowed to work their regular jobs or take part in work release programs while being monitored.

Rebecca Mead, who oversees the electronic monitoring program for the county Probation Department, said that Sentinel is looking into leasing a site near the jail to serve those participants who have been released from jail.

But the situation is thorny because Sentinel has a five-year lease in Burbank, said Chris Foss, of the city manager’s office.

County officials are eager to see the issue resolved, said Mead. But she said the perception that the office presents a danger is unwarranted because violent criminals--and those guilty of sex offenses and other serious crimes--are not allowed to participate in electronic monitoring, she said.

Rather, the offenders assigned to the branch office were convicted of minor crimes such as petty theft. About half were convicted of drunk driving or driving without a valid driver’s license.

“These are not hardened criminals we are talking about. They are your neighbors, most of them are employed, most have families,” Mead said.