Jails Are Facing Staffing Shortage, Council Members Told

The city is facing a staffing crisis--brought on by low pay and bad working conditions--in its jails, Los Angeles City Council members were told Thursday.

Over the past year, several dozen civilian workers in city jails have quit, many to take better paying jobs elsewhere in city government, police officials told members of the council’s Public Safety and Personnel committees.

Until a few weeks ago, 55 of the jail division’s 321 civilian positions were unfilled, and staffing remains short, officials said.

“Basically, we’ve been running with a tremendous number of vacancies,” said Bill Moran, who heads the Los Angeles Police Department’s fiscal bureau. “If we can’t solve this problem, we may have to shrink the size of the jail system.”

The LAPD operates 13 aging jails at various police facilities across the city. On average, inmates stay in the city’s lockups up to three days, until they can be arraigned and booked into the county jail.

By many accounts, the city jail system is a difficult place in which to work for civilians, who are often the subject of discrimination from the city’s sworn officers, officials were told.

After listening to lengthy testimony, Councilwomen Jackie Goldberg and Cindy Miscikowski asked city executives to study the situation and report back in 30 days.