IN & OUT & IN JAIL 'REVOLVING DOOR' FREES PRISONERS TO REOFFEND.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer About 20 percent of the nearly 50,000 prisoners freed early from Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County jails in the past year because of the budget crunch have been arrested again within 90 days, raising concerns that public safety is being jeopardized and the justice system undermined. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Sheriff's Department records obtained this week by the Daily News, most inmates are released after serving just 10 percent of their sentences, and many thousands wind up jailed again within months on other charges. Officials said nearly $200 million in budget cuts have forced closure of several jails and eliminated 2,500 beds in the past two years, reducing the inmate population from 20,000 to 17,500 and creating a system of ``revolving-door justice.'' Officials fear that an additional $109 million in cuts contained in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget would drastically worsen wors·en tr. & intr.v. wors·ened, wors·en·ing, wors·ens To make or become worse. worsen Verb to make or become worse worsening adjn the problem, allowing thousands of defendants convicted of misdemeanors to go free without serving any jail time at all. ``We are going to create a state of emergency in the county if we keep going in this direction,'' Sheriff Lee Baca Leroy David Baca (b. May 27 1942, East Los Angeles, California) is the Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California. After graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School (Los Angeles) in 1960, Baca worked his way through East Los Angeles College before starting with the L.A. said in an interview. ``We won't have enough people to man our jails. Thus, criminals will run free on the streets of L.A., beyond what they are already doing now. ``We have revolving-door justice for lower-level crimes.'' Sheriff's officials say deeper budget cuts might prompt them to add more- serious offenses to the list of of those that now qualify for early release, including sexual assault, sex crimes against minors, sexual exploitation of a child, indecent exposure indecent exposure n. the crime of displaying one's genitalia to one or more other people in a public place, usually with the apparent intent to shock the unsuspecting viewer and give the exposer a sexual charge. , child molestation Child molestation is a crime involving a range of indecent or sexual activities between an adult and a child, usually under the age of 14. In psychiatric terms, these acts are sometimes known as pedophilia. and child abuse. The department would also have to consider not booking the 20,000 people arrested each year on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence, drunken driving and assault on a peace officer. ``It's sick,'' said Maggie Elvey, a member of Crime Victims United of California, whose husband was fatally beaten in 1993 by two teens. ``I think they are really jeopardizing public safety with these budget cuts. ``They don't seem to be too concerned about what it does to victims and their families when they turn these offenders loose. It's mind-boggling to consider. We need to start thinking about public safety, and not money. I always thought government's prime concern was public safety.'' Of the 21,653 felony felony (fĕl`ənē), any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. suspects and 26,446 misdemeanor suspects arrested from March 2003 through February, 18 percent were rearrested within 90 days, says a study prepared for the Daily News on a sampling of the released inmates. In one case, a suspect arrested Oct. 5 on a charge of vandalism was found guilty and sentenced Oct. 15 to three months in jail. He was released from jail the next day and on Oct. 21 was rearrested on a felony charge of throwing a substance at a vehicle with the intent to do great bodily harm The medical idea of (grievous) bodily harm is more specific than legal ideas of assault or violence in general, and distinct from property damage. It refers to lasting harm done to the body, human or otherwise, although in its legal sense it is exclusively defined as lasting . ``So here you have a guy, there was a small crime of vandalism, he spent one night in jail on a 90-day jail term, and five days after he's out, he's committing a felony,'' said Los Angeles City Attorney's Office spokesman Eric Moses. In another case, a man was arrested Aug. 14 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon Assault with a Deadly Weapon is the term used to describe the act of threatening to harm one or more people by using a weapon (usually a firearm). Here, assault must be differentiated from battery as they are often confused. Assault is threatening to use force. . A month later, he was sentenced to 150 days in jail, but was released after serving just five days. He was back in jail Nov. 11 on a charge of making criminal threats. ``We have been working with LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. Chief (William) Bratton to focus on misdemeanor crimes and the early release of misdemeanor criminals impedes our progress,'' said Luis Li, chief of the criminal branch in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. ``A lot of the crimes we prosecute as misdemeanors in Los Angeles would in fact be felonies in other jurisdictions.'' A deputy district attorney, who requested anonymity, said his fellow prosecutors are alarmed at the number of inmates being released early. ``When you listen to people in the know in the District Attorney's Office or Sheriff's Department, they say it's only going to get worse, not better. ``We're not just talking about driving without a license or petty theft charges. We are talking about second- and third-time drunk drivers, low-level sexual batterers, assaults with a deadly weapon deadly weapon n. any weapon which can kill. This includes not only weapons which are intended to do harm like a gun or knife, but also blunt instruments like clubs, baseball bats, monkey wrenches, an automobile or any object which actually causes death. , drug possession and drug sales. ``The jails actually have guidelines that are formula-based on how many people are in the jails and how long they will serve,'' he said. ``It's based on the level of the charge and jail crowding.'' The county District Attorney's Office prosecutes about 65,000 felony cases a year, about 90 percent to 95 percent of which are disposed of through plea bargains plea bargain n. in criminal procedure, a negotiation between the defendant and his attorney on one side and the prosecutor on the other, in which the defendant agrees to plead "guilty" or "no contest" to some crimes, in return for reduction of the severity of the . In many of those cases, felons are allowed to serve their sentence in county jail. ``It's a revolving door,'' District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons Famous people named Gibbons include:
Baca has authored a half-cent sales-tax measure for the November ballot that would raise $500 a million a year for law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). . The sheriff said he could avert hundreds of layoffs and keep more inmates in jail longer if it passes. Baca said he plans to hold a meeting soon with local law enforcement officials to discuss the jail crisis. ``We have to be candid about it. We can't hide this from the public. That's one of the reasons I'm out front on this half-cent sales-tax measure. I'm now in a place where the public needs to know about the hemorrhaging that is going on in public safety.'' Troy Anderson, (213) 974-8985 troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com JAIL FACTS --Of the 48,099 inmates given early releases since March 2003, 21,653 were arrested for felonies and 26,446 were arrested for misdemeanors. A sampling of the 48,099 inmates released early found that 18 percent were rearrested within 90 days. --Crimes that qualify for early release after 10 percent of a sentence is served include burglary, grand theft auto, domestic violence, narcotics narcotics n. 1) techinically, drugs which dull the senses. 2) a popular generic term for drugs which cannot be legally possessed, sold, or transported except for medicinal uses for which a physician or dentist's prescription is required. offenses and drunken driving. --Nearly $200 million was cut from the Sheriff's Department budget in the past two years, prompting Sheriff Lee Baca to close several jails, eliminate 2,500 beds and eliminate 1,000 jobs through attrition Attrition The reduction in staff and employees in a company through normal means, such as retirement and resignation. This is natural in any business and industry. Notes: . Baca expects to lay off 1,314 deputies if further cuts are made to his budget. --The jail population has dropped from 20,000 to 17,500 in the past two years. CAPTION(S): box Box: JAIL FACTS (see text) |
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