Sheriff’s First 100 Days Are Whirlwind of Ideas

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca marks his 100th day in office today, with supporters crediting him with rejuvenating the department and detractors questioning whether he can make good on a growing list of promises.

Since taking office Dec. 7, Baca has met with hundreds of deputies and citizens--offering his thoughts on how to improve everything from community relations to conditions in the jails.

“I’ve hit the ground running,” Baca told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. “We are on an aggressive plan. We are on the path of setting goals.”

With his down-to-earth style, Baca is well liked by the rank and file. They say he is a breath of fresh air in a department that has not had a new leader since 1982. But, skeptics say, the sheriff now is in the difficult position of putting into action ideas that range from the practical to the farfetched.

“He has made a lot of promises,” said one department official. “We are hoping he can live up to them. . . . The jury is out.”

He has vowed to open four jails, hire more deputies and upgrade equipment. He is considering transferring the county’s female inmates, now housed at Twin Towers, to the Pitchess South facility, where he hopes to revive the old “ranch” operations, including a sod farm. He wants to set up a nursery at the jail where female inmates’ small children can live. “I believe that a mother should have the right to raise her child if she’s in jail,” Baca said.

He has even suggested starting the department’s own water company to serve the thousands of inmates housed at the north county facilities.

Analysts estimate that it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to carry out all of the ideas that Baca has spun off in the past three months. Early on, Baca said he was going to appeal to the Board of Supervisors for a large chunk of the money. On Tuesday, he said he also would seek funding from other sources.

Some department insiders have referred to Baca as the “Disneyland dad,” accusing him of telling people what they want to hear and coming up with an “idea a minute.” He said such critics are not welcome in the department.

“Anyone in the Sheriff’s Department who wears the uniform, who feels my goals are not realistic, is an individual who should start finding another job,” he said. “There is a need for us to set goals in a fashion that is clear. That’s what these goals are.”

Baca’s most significant plans include revamping the county jail system. He said he wants to take a more rehabilitative approach to custody. Qualified inmates will be required to participate in work-release programs, including community beautification projects, such as graffiti removal. Baca also hopes to set up a literacy program for prisoners.

He said he would like to hire more civilians to run the jails, freeing up deputies to patrol the streets. And, Baca said, he wants to build a new jail for female inmates at the ranch facility, where the buildings will look more like “cottages” than a hard-lock jail.

Finally, Baca said he wants to start a nursery for the young children of female inmates--an announcement that surprised his staff, which in recent days has been seeking to downplay the idea as a nebulous notion that still must be fleshed out.

“We are not necessarily encouraging children to be raised in that environment,” Baca said. “But the responsibility of mother and child must not be abrogated just because the mother is in custody.”

In addition to citing the things he wants to accomplish, Baca also noted some of the changes that he already has made.

Under pressure to fix long-standing problems at the department’s Century station, Baca announced several weeks ago that he had assigned a new captain to the facility and was making sweeping staff changes, including transferring 25 female and African American deputies to the station. The bold move was intended to counter criticism that the facility does not adequately reflect the area’s demographics.

On Tuesday, Baca said he has taken steps to trim the department’s administrative division, including transferring 12 lieutenants and 30 sergeants from desk jobs to patrol.

He said he has set up a San Gabriel Valley-based task force to target criminals who victimize Asian Pacific Americans. The Asian Crime Task Force will have 24 members who are fluent in several languages, he said.

So far, county officials have praised Baca’s progress. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he believes that Baca has “set a good tone.”

“He is not a politician, which is largely a plus,” Yaroslavsky said. “Sometimes he’ll say things that he doesn’t explain. For the most part, people have warmed to his genuineness and have empathized with his idealism and his excitement about doing the job.”

In his 10th semiannual report, Sheriff’s Department special counsel Merrick Bobb noted that Baca has an “unrestrained eagerness” to propose and embrace novel ideas, change and unorthodox methods.

“He thinks very broadly about issues and he comes up with a lot of ideas,” said Bobb, retained by the Board of Supervisors to track problems in the department. “The relevant question is whether he and his staff are capable of sorting through those ideas and picking out the ones that have merit and disregarding those that are impractical. Our current view is we have confidence in the new administration and take them at their word. We’ll be watching carefully.”