At the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Jaime Iniguez was awakened Friday morning and told to get ready to leave.
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\nIniguez, 53, was serving a four-month sentence for drunk driving, his
\nsecond DUI offense. He wasn’t scheduled to be released for another
\nmonth.
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\n"It’s time to celebrate," said Iniguez as he put on his belt outside the downtown jail complex.
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\nIniguez is a member of a distinct group that benefits during a sour economy: jail inmates.
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\nWhen times are flush, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has
\nthe money to keep jails open and staffed, and the vast majority of
\nsentenced inmates serve most of their time behind bars.
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\nBut when times get tough and tax revenues shrink, the department has
\nrepeatedly looked to its jail operations to make cuts, freeing
\nthousands of inmates who’ve served only a fraction of their sentences.
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\nThe length of jail stays has ebbed and flowed in tune with L.A.
\nCounty’s budget for more than two decades, leaving the county during
\nfinancial crunches with some of the weakest jail sentences in the
\nnation.<\/p>\n