The number of inmates escaping from Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department custody has doubled over the last two years, and prosecutors are alarmed that sheriff's officials have no formal policy to notify them when an inmate gets away.
Sheriff's officials say that the escapes -- 20 so far this year -- are not a crisis given that the department handles up to 20,000 inmates a day. But the department's independent monitor said the escapes, along with an additional 23 inmates released by accident and the continued killings of inmates within the jails, are evidence that the department has trouble maintaining control of its huge inmate population.
"The number of inmate-on-inmate deaths, escapes, clerical mistakes that lead to release, I think it confirms that the Sheriff's Department as a whole has lost ground in its ability to manage the jails," said Merrick Bobb, the Los Angeles attorney hired by the Board of Supervisors as an independent monitor of the Sheriff's Department.
Inmates have slipped away from sheriff's stations, jail work details and courthouse holding facilities. One recently escaped by stealing the identification wristband of an inmate scheduled for release the same day. Last year, an inmate escaped during a doctor's visit while the deputy assigned to guard him worked on one of the hospital's computers.
Four of this year's escapees remain at large, including the one who allegedly stole another inmate's wristband in a courthouse holding area and stepped into a line of inmates due for release the same day. The escapee, Kristin Bryant, had been charged with robbery and a parole violation. Deputies recaptured the other 16.
The Sheriff's Department mistakenly released 23 other inmates because of clerical errors, and one is still free, according to sheriff's records. Those released by accident this year faced charges of narcotics possession, car theft, assault with a deadly weapon, failure to register as a sex offender and threatening a witness. The missing suspect is Alejandro Gonzales, who was released while being held on charges of driving under the influence.
Last week, two inmates allegedly beat and stomped an inmate to death while they were locked unsupervised in a holding room at the downtown Men's Central Jail. The killing was the eighth homicide in the jail in the last two years.
Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said he doesn't know how many times the sheriff has failed to alert him that an inmate escaped. Cooley said he only learned of the Bryant escape from a radio news show.
