Ventura County Star
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department is continuing to give jail inmates extra time off their sentences as mandated by a new law, officials said Thursday, a day after a judge ordered Sacramento County to stop its early releases.
Sheriff’s departments in both counties began early releases of jail inmates Jan. 25, when a new law aimed at reducing the state’s inmate population went into effect. The law shaves time off sentences for non-violent inmates who behave.
On Wednesday, a Sacramento judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by a union of Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies to block the early releases from jails there. The union’s lawyer had argued the early releases, combined with layoffs of deputies, created a public safety problem.
Ventura County Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said the ruling was specific to the Sacramento area.
“We’re relying on the same legal opinion that we got initially,” he said.
Copyright 2010 Ventura County Star