New Plan Will Free Some County Inmates at Courthouses

Under pressure to fix a laundry list of problems that continue to bedevil Los Angeles County’s jail system, Sheriff Sherman Block said Thursday that his deputies will begin immediately freeing inmates who win “forthwith” release orders at the courthouse instead of busing them back to the overcrowded county lockups, where they often wait days--and sometimes weeks--to be let go.

At his monthly open house, Block said his department intends to have technology in place within the next 30 days to check for outstanding warrants on inmates ordered released by judges. Those who have a clear record will be allowed to choose immediate release from the courthouse or a trip back to jail, where they will wait for their paperwork to catch up with them.

Block’s announcement came as civil rights attorneys stepped up their campaign to reform the county’s problem-plagued inmate tracking system, which has allowed at least 700 people to be held past their legal release dates over the past year.

On Wednesday, Block was questioned by one of those lawyers, Stephen Yagman, who is representing a man illegally held in county jail four days after he was acquitted of homicide.

In the deposition--taken at Yagman’s Venice office--Block acknowledged that the department has been holding some inmates past their ordered release dates for the past six to eight years. The sheriff said he was aware of the problem but has been unable to fix it because the Board of Supervisors has refused to give the department money to install new computers.

Now, with funds secured from a variety of sources, Block said he hopes to correct the situation. “We’re beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel,” the sheriff told reporters Thursday.

An internal Sheriff’s Department memo, obtained by The Times last week, shows that clerks in the jail system’s bustling Inmate Reception Center are failing to follow the agency’s guidelines and procedures when processing thousands of court orders that arrive there each night. As a result, hundreds of inmates have been held too long, and a handful of others, some accused of violent crimes, have been erroneously released.

Aware of its liability on the release issue, the department paid out nearly $200,000 to 548 inmates held illegally on condition they sign promises not to sue the county. The inmates were illegally detained for a total of 3,694 days in 1997, sheriff’s officials said.

In an effort to determine how much Block knew about the situation, Yagman subpoenaed the sheriff for the deposition. A lawyer from a private firm hired to represent Block declined to allow a reporter to be present for the questioning. However, Yagman let The Times review a videotape of the deposition, which lasted about 90 minutes.

“If someone has been acquitted in court and there is no legal basis to hold them, is it appropriate to continue to have them in custody?” Yagman asked the sheriff during the proceeding.

Block responded: “I believe they can be held for a reasonable period to ensure there are no other cases pending.”

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When asked if the practice was legal, Block conferred with his attorney and said: “I know of no specific law either authorizing or prohibiting what we do. The trial judges are all aware of the process and have never objected.”

The sheriff added, however, that he considered detentions past legal release dates to be a serious problem, “one we are working to correct.”

On Thursday, he said he was seeking to secure $38 million to upgrade the jails’ computer system. The bulk of the funds will come from the county’s inmate welfare fund and new allocations from the Board of Supervisors. The remainder, Block said, will be raised through private donations.

According to Undersheriff Jerry Harper, the department plans to spend more than $1 million installing fingerprint-scanning devices in 20 courthouse. The equipment will identify inmates and determine if they have any outstanding warrants, he said, adding that eventually the system will be expanded to more than 50 courthouses across the county.

Inmates who opt to be released from court will be provided with a change of clothes so they will not have to go out onto the streets wearing jail jumpsuits. They will be given 30 days to return to the Twin Towers jail and pick up their personal property, sheriff’s officials said.

Yagman and defense attorney John Burton praised the plan. Burton is leading a group of civil rights lawyers who recently filed a class action lawsuit against Block, demanding that he stop holding inmates past their court-ordered release dates.

“This was such an obviously unconstitutional practice, and they had such an obvious solution,” Burton said. “It is remarkable there ever had to be an uproar for this to be implemented. At the same time, we congratulate [Block] on saying he’s going to take steps to fix the problem. We certainly hope he follows through with it.”