Okay, I’ve been threatening to be more critical of Sheriff Lee Baca for his running of the problematic LA County jails, but he’s just now made a very good move that is emblematic of Baca’s best leadership qualities. So it’s essential to give credit where credit is due.
(I promise I’ll post a nice snappy To Do list for him next week, now that I’m out from under my pesky deadline.)
While our California governor and state lawmakers do little more than posture on the issue of prison and jail overcrowding—and do exactly ZERO on the issue of sentencing reform—(with the exception, on both counts, of state senator Gloria Romero), Baca is jumping in with both feet to push for the authority to put 2000 of the low-level offenders, who are routinely remanded to his jails, on home detention. They’ll have to serve out their full sentences wearing those electronic ankle bracelet thingies. But, they won’t be in county lock-up.
This is exactly the right move.
(One of my UCI students did a great story last quarter on a California company that distributes the SCRAM monitoring device, and they are unquestionably the wave of the future.)
Yesterday’s LA Times has the details on the sheriff’s idea, and this morning’s LA Times editorial appropriately urges support for Baca’s proposal.
If the state legislature doesn’t hop enthusiastically on Baca’s plan, we need to hammer them until they do.
PS: Already the law-and-order types are marching out the usual tired and wearingly predictable criticism…..while the California prisons are possibly a week or two away from having their populations capped by a federal judge who has had it with the over-politicized behavior—on both sides of the aisle—that has left the state’s prisons, and the corrections health care system, in a dangerous state of overcrowded shambles.
Ya estuvo!
This sure is ironic, in light of the way Delgadillo bashed Baca for letting Paris serve all but three days at home detention (before, of course, being dragged back to jail by a sourpuss judge called Judge Sauer, and having the whole thing blow up in Rocky’s face, starting his rapid descent).
Even more ironic is that some of this plan’s loudest critics, per the Times, are advocates for the mentally ill, who fear these people will not have the treatment they need outside of jail. (They will, according to Baca, and the most serious ones will not be sent home. There will be plenty of volunteers, and if they choose this, they’ll serve their full number of days at home, vs. a few days in jail.)
It’s this same group who wants Paris to be their spokesperson. Gee, if you asked her, which would she choose: jail or home confinement?
Pokey is a little confused, currently, home detention is voluntary, and last year 8,713 inmates applied for the alternative to jail time, but now Baca wants to FORCE inmates who would PREFER to be in jail to accept home confinement.
Don’t’ tell me that the convicted regulars are getting so smart that they gamble on getting a quick release from a crowded jail instead of having to stay at home for a prolonged period of time.
I’m pretty sure the Times said home detention would still be voluntary; there seems no shortage of volunteers. They didn’t state exactly how those needing mental help would get it, but I assume, via home visits. However, since Hilton’s “medical condition” was claustrophobia — and I don’t discount it, I developed it after virtual dental torture in a root canal which took hours and suffocated me, and since then, just a few years ago, it recurs. But it’s worst on places like planes, where you can’t get up or get fresh air; at home, just sitting on a balcony should do it. (Are these people allowed out into their yards?) How did she end up handling it in solitary? Valium, or just screaming through it?
But just as Baca is making his stand, supported by many — he’s taken the blame for there being not enough jails — his problems are further compounded by allegations that Paris got special treatment: nothing major, a new jumpsuit, use of a cellphone. I wonder, did she just get it to make a call to Barbra Walters and others re: negotiations, or did she really have access 24/7? Why do these deputies hate him?
A link I found just yesterday on the Huffington Post, a “people’s website” (I can look it up again if anyone cares — or just go there and Google Paris Hilton), dated 6/16 re: the release of Paris Hilton and hoopla in her (and my) hood, quoted jail reps saying that Paris most definitely did NOT get spsecial treatment: they ripped off her family photos she’d put up there (none too gently), etc. — Seems especially odd and political for the deputies to manufacture allegations a month later that are so minor.