By Jack Leonard
LA Times
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has for years tried to reduce jail overcrowding and the early release of inmates by placing low-level offenders into home detention and work-release programs.
But these programs have largely failed to make a dent, forcing the department to consider more expensive ways to address the problem, such as contracting with other detention facilities to house L.A. County inmates.
The most high-profile program required some inmates to serve out their sentences at home wearing electronic monitors. Sheriff Lee Baca even got special legislation approved in 2007 to allow counties to operate the program. Baca put the cost at up to $20 a day per inmate while county jail costs about $118 a day.
But some inmates quickly concluded that staying in jail for a short stint before being released early was better than spending their entire sentence in home confinement. So they sidestepped the program by claiming they were homeless, with no place they could be confined outside of jail, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Officials suspect that many inmates made the claim so they could stay in jail and take advantage of an early release without any supervision.
“People were gaming the system,” said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.
In response to questions from The Times, sheriff’s officials recently acknowledged that the high-profile program was abandoned in late 2010, less than two years after it started. Meanwhile, the early releases have accelerated.
L.A. County officials continue to offer home detention for inmates who volunteer and agree to pay for their electronic monitoring, but the number in that program on any given day has fallen sharply. In March 2010, 225 inmates were on voluntary electronic monitoring, according to department figures. As of Tuesday, the number was 77.
Full story: Inmates avoided home detention program by claiming to be homeless