A 'GET OUT OF JAIL FREE' CARD 2,000 INMATES RELEASED EARLY EACH MONTH.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

More than 2,000 inmates a month are being released early from Los Angeles County jails under Sheriff Lee Baca's new policy of cutting jail costs to balance his budget, officials said Wednesday.

From June 13, when the controversial program began, through Wednesday, 5,002 inmates had been released after serving 70 percent of their sentences for misdemeanor convictions such as vandalism, petty theft and drunk or reckless driving.

And from July 1 through Tuesday, 227 people arrested on nonviolent misdemeanor offenses, with bail set at $25,000 or less, were booked into jail and released on their own recognizance. Prior to the new policy, the department routinely released defendants whose bail was $5,000 or less.

``I think it's just plain wrong,'' said Northridge resident Robert Hickok, 69, a descendent of the legendary frontier scout and marshal ``Wild Bill'' Hickok. ``If they were convicted legally in a court for having broken the law, they should serve the sentence the jury or court gave them.''

Sheriff's Capt. Ray Leyva said the jail population Tuesday stood at 19,328, down from a high of nearly 21,000 in June. Despite the number of releases, Leyva said the new policy is not putting the public at risk.

``It's the nonviolent misdemeanants who are being released early,'' Leyva said. ``The robbers and predators are staying in jail until they do 100 percent of their sentences.''

Earlier this summer, Baca threatened to cut critical programs and release hundreds of inmates from the nation's largest jail system if the Board of Supervisors didn't increase his budget by $100 million.

After the supervisors refused to give Baca extra money and cut $62 million from his budget in June, Baca closed the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood and the Biscailuz Recovery Center.

Supervisors and District Attorney Steve Cooley were outraged, saying convicted criminals belong in jail and the release of inmates would lead to many freed prisoners becoming fugitives or committing new crimes.

The supervisors and Cooley declined to comment on the number of releases.

But City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said the new policy threatens public safety and undermines the efforts of his office and the Los Angeles Police Department to rid the streets of crime.

Delgadillo said his office prosecutes more than 100,000 misdemeanors a year, which include assaults with a deadly weapon, sexual assaults and child molestation cases. In many cases, prisoners who committed even more serious crimes have pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

``It's unacceptable,'' said Ana Garcia, spokeswoman for the City Attorney's Office. ``He works very hard, and so do all of the attorneys in this office, to make sure people are prosecuted and punished for their crimes. And if someone doesn't serve their full sentence, that is very frustrating.

``The most important thing is at the end of the day our streets are as safe as they can be for our kids and our families.''

Officials said Wednesday they couldn't immediately determine whether any of the early-release inmates had been re-arrested for new crimes and rejected a request by the Daily News to obtain the information, saying it would take too much time.

Baca's predecessor, Sherman Block, released about 3,000 inmates in 1995 during a similar budget crisis.

Thanks to the cuts the department has made, Baca balanced his budget for 2001-02 and expects to stay out of the red this fiscal year.

``If we stay on track and maintain the right control of our spending controls we have instituted, I think we'll be OK,'' Leyva said. ``We have really tightened everything down. Every expenditure is being scrutinized. Overtime is being tightly controlled.''