PITCHESS GROWTH IN JAILS PROPOSAL.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

CASTAIC -- A $400 million plan to reduce overcrowding and violence in Los Angeles County jails could bring 2,400 more inmates and three additional facilities to the grounds of Pitchess Detention Center.

The Sheriff's Department will present that proposal and other recommendations -- some ranging to more than $1 billion -- to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today as ways to modernize the county jail system that houses 19,000 men and women.

``We have to have adequate space in our jail system to house the vast number of prisoners that we have, and we're trying to build for the future,'' said Paul K. Tanaka, assistant sheriff.

Locally that could mean building a medium-security facility for 1,000 men and a low-security ranch for 1,000 women inmates at Pitchess Detention Center, under the terms of one scenario to be presented by sheriff's officials and the county's chief administrative officer.

Plans include a new high-security wing, holding about 400 inmates, at the North County Correctional Facility on the Pitchess grounds. About 9,000 inmates are now housed at the complex.

Calling Tuesday's jail presentation a kickoff discussion, Anna Pembedjian, justice deputy to county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, does not expect an immediate vote by the Board of Supervisors on any one plan. Instead, she said it's a starting point to consider what kinds of plans and projects are needed for the future of local jails.

``The board is trying to analyze what our short-term and long-term housing for our jails need to be,'' Pembedjian said.

Plans match inmates to housing that reflects their crimes and also reshuffles many who were moved to other detention centers following race riots in February at Pitchess that left one man dead and more than 100 injured. Another inmate died at Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles after fighting spread through the system.

Following the deadly clashes, high-risk inmates were moved from Pitchess, where many slept in one large room on 64 bunk beds, to downtown's Twin Towers, where they live more isolated from others, with one or two to a cell in a maximum-security environment.

To accommodate that move from Pitchess in March, women inmates at Twin Towers were transferred to Century Regional Detention Center, a medium-security facility in Lynwood that was previously closed down.

Now officials propose relocating the women again, a move that could free up about 1,800 spots at the Lynwood facility for more men, Tanaka said.

About 1,000 of the women would then be transferred to the proposed Castaic site and 1,000 more to Sybil Brand Jail, an east Los Angeles women's facility that closed in 1998. Tanaka estimates about $114 million would be needed to refurbish it.

Discussions for a master plan began about eight months ago between county supervisors and the Sheriff's Department. The report was expected before the county's June budget deliberations, Pembedjian said.

Sheriff Lee Baca previously has discussed a bond measure for the November ballot to help pay for improvements to the jail system, although nothing has been formally introduced.

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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IF YOU GO

The county Board of Supervisors will review jail expansion plans at noon today at the Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple St., Los Angeles

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