A program that Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca championed three
years ago to sharply reduce the early release of jail inmates by
placing as many as 2,000 additional offenders on electronic monitoring
at home has failed to make a significant dent in the problem.
When
he first announced the initiative in 2007 and prodded the state
Legislature to allow it, Baca touted it as a major step that would free
jail space and allow the department to keep more-serious offenders
behind bars longer.
But officials now concede the plan was based on a misunderstanding of the jail population. That doomed it from the outset.
Last
week, only 135 inmates were involuntarily serving sentences at home,
where they wear electronic ankle bracelets to track their movements,
according to Sheriff’s Department numbers provided to The Times.
There are now fewer inmates on home detention than when Baca pushed to expand the program in 2007, according to the records.
–Jack Leonard