Windfall to Ease L.A. Jails' Crowding

About 200,000 inmates have been let out of Los Angeles County jails before their sentences were completed over the last three years, the vast majority after serving 10% of their terms.

Critics complained that the releases undermined the deterrent of jail and pointed out that in some cases, inmates who were released early went on to commit other crimes when they should have been incarcerated. Sheriff Lee Baca has insisted that he did not have the money to expand jail operations so that inmates would complete their sentences.

But on Monday, the county said it can afford the jail improvements thanks in part to an expected surge in property tax collections, which have soared along with home values.

With the extra money, Baca plans to begin hiring new deputies in the fiscal year that starts in July. By the fall of 2006, he hopes to reopen all the jail areas that have been closed to save money over the last three years.

"It's a very important turnaround," Baca said. "It's taking a very serious problem and fixing it."

The county expects a 6% increase in property taxes in the next year, adding an estimated $150 million to its coffers. That revenue, along with lower-than-expected workers' compensation costs, helped officials budget the $68.5 million needed for the project, according to a county budget plan released Monday.

County supervisors, who have been among the most critical of the early release policy, are expected to enthusiastically back the jail improvements.

The county plans to hire 500 new deputies and add 4,474 new beds to the jail system, increasing the capacity by 25%. In addition to stemming the early releases, the Sheriff's Department expects the extra deputies to improve security at the jails, where five inmates have allegedly been murdered in the last two years at the hands of fellow detainees.

The county plans to move high-risk offenders into the Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles. Twin Towers, the newest of the county's jails, was built as a high-security facility but houses lower-risk mentally ill inmates and female detainees. (In the past, the county had considered this arrangement less costly than moving high-risk offenders there.)