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At least one group is benefiting from this sour economy. Jail inmates in Los Angeles, Calif., are getting released early because of budget constraints.
When times are flush, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has the money to keep jails open and staffed, and the vast majority of sentenced inmates serve most of their time behind bars.
But when times get tough and tax revenues shrink, the department has repeatedly looked to its jail operations to make cuts, freeing thousands of inmates who've served only a fraction of their sentences. Until this week, all male inmates served at least 80 percent of their jail time. Most women still serve only 20 percent.
On Tuesday, the department began freeing male inmates sentenced for nonviolent offenses, such as drunk driving, after they'd served 50 percent of their time. Sheriff's officials said they hoped the practice would be short-lived.
During financial crunches, the county has some of the weakest jail sentences in the nation.
Now the county is shifting back in to those lean times. Faced with fresh budget woes, Sheriff Lee Baca announced this week that he has stepped up the early release of inmates, a move that could continue for weeks or months.
"It is like groundhog day -- we see it over and over again," said Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger. "When we have tough fiscal times and the economy turns bad, then the criminals get dumped out of the jails back in to our neighborhoods."
Between 2002 and 2006, more than 150,000 inmates were freed early, after they had served just a fraction of their sentences. A 2006 Los Angeles Times investigation found that nearly 16,000 inmates released early were rearrested while they were supposed to be in jail. Sixteen were charged with murder.
Are there better alternatives to deal with the budget crunch than releasing inmates before their time is served? Or are the sentences for non-violent criminals too long to begin with?
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By: b. becton: young, black, and powerful on 3/09/2010 12:25PM
This is utterly ridiculous, have people lost their minds? Everybody is effected by the economy especially if you are a tax payer. The state takes an astronomical amount of money out of our salaries to cover expenses such as prison and you mean to tell me that they can not make criminals serve their full sentences because of financial problems. America's justice system is screwed up, they give criminals too many rights and too much "freedom". To cut down on finances prison should serve their inmates bread and water, abolish recreational time,and allow them to have one hour a day of sunlight and fresh air. The system needs to become more stern and practice under the notorious "eye for an eye" law for verdicts that have been proven without a doubt to be correct. The only crime that should be granted leniency is a crime of self defense and double jeopardy should be null and void if evidence that the defendant is guilty should arise. California's prison system is home to some of the most vicious cold calculated murders that the nation has to offer and does NOT enforce the death penality. Some consider the death penalty "inhumane" treatment, therefore many states have gotten rid of it thus causing over crowding. This movement is a slap in the face to the families and the victims because manslaughter is inhumane but where is the compassion for them? The defendant gets a lifetime behind bars but they are still living and the family has to suffer from a heartache that has no cure. I believe prison should be hell on earth and treat prisoners like the scum they are, make society fear prison and stop giving them slaps on the wrist as punishment. This would fix all of our problems, people would think twice about committing crimes,taxes will support a better cause, more criminals would be put to death deducing over crowding,sixteen murder convictions would not have taken place, and 16,000 out of 150,000 inmates will not be returned to prison while they were supposed to be in jail.For those who think my views are harsh I believe that if you can not do the time then do not do the crime, for it is your type of opinion that has made things the way they are now.
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