Under its policy of selectively releasing criminals to ease jail overcrowding, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has routinely forced women, prostitutes arrested in Compton and certain gang members to serve more time than others convicted of identical crimes.
Prosecutors and legal experts fear the practice could be illegal and prompt lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.
"It could not be more upside down and backward," Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said.
The county lacks the resources to hold all the people being sent to jail, but at the same time Sheriff Lee Baca is under federal court order to avoid overcrowding in the nation's largest jail system.
Therefore, Baca says, he has no choice but to direct jailers to free dozens of inmates every day under a set of rules that governs which inmates get out early -- many after serving less than 10% of their sentences -- and which stay behind bars.
Under the policy, inmates arrested in certain crime-plagued regions are incarcerated 10 times longer than those arrested for the same crimes in other parts of the county, according to interviews and the department's two-page "Release Criteria."
For example, people convicted of prostitution in areas served by the sheriff's Compton and Century stations are required to serve 100% of their sentences, while those convicted of prostitution in the rest of the county serve 10%.
That's because the department is cracking down on prostitution in those regions, and officials believe the program would be less effective if inmates were released early, said sheriff's Chief Marc Klugman, who oversees the jails.
The department has also made exceptions for members of a Hawaiian Gardens gang implicated in the June 2005 slaying of Deputy Jerry Ortiz.
Department policy now calls for those associated with the gang to serve full sentences for any crime for which they are convicted.
The arbitrary nature of those decisions worries Cooley and others, who say the policy could violate the "equal protection" clause of the Constitution, which requires similarly situated people to be treated equally by the government.
Long Beach City Prosecutor Tom Reeves said he was concerned for other reasons. Forcing Compton prostitutes to serve their entire sentences could push them over the border into Long Beach, where prostitutes convicted by Reeves' office serve just 10% of their sentences.
