According to officials, L.A. jails could be at capacity by Christmas, but a possible solution could lie in neighboring cities. The Sheriff is reportedly looking at cities in Kern County as a location to outsource low-level offenders.
As realignment sends more and more to the L.A. County Jail System, space is becoming more of a premium. Many of the people currently being held at the jails are awaiting trial. To open up space for more dangerous offenders, those accused of drug crimes and prostitution could be released with electronic tracking hardware strapped to their ankles.
The other option is to ship up to 1,000 inmates from L.A. County to Kern, where they could be held in mostly vacant facilities there. The potential inmate shift could also help the county save $50,000 per day, as it costs just $61 per day to house them in Kern, while it costs $113 per day in L.A. County.
From the Los Angeles Times:
The population of Los Angeles County’s jails has swelled significantly in the last few months due to an influx of prisoners, forcing officials to look as far as the Central Valley for places to house them.
Since last fall, the state has shifted more than 5,000 inmates who would previously have been housed in state prisons to Los Angeles’ jails under a program known as “realignment.” The county’s jail system, the nation’s largest, now holds about 18,600 inmates, and officials are concerned about overcrowding unless they can find alternative locations for the prisoners.
Read the full article here.