LA Supervisors Shift Millions in State Funding to Detention Center

The Board of Supervisors today voted to shift $100 million of state funding for a women's jail facility near Castaic to a new project site -- Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster.

The county was in danger of losing grant money allocated for a "women's village" at Pitchess Detention Center, where easements owned by oil and utility companies have stalled the planning process.

Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka recommended moving the project to Mira Loma, previously used as a federal detention site for illegal immigrants but now closed.

"If we don't take today's action ... we will lose that $100 million," Fujioka said, warning the deadline comes at the end of this month.

Assistant Sheriff Terri McDonald supported the change, saying Mira Loma Women's Village offered more capacity for innovative programs and the possibility of a re-entry facility.

The village would operate under "indirect supervision," with guards moving freely among inmates rather than being stationed in a central control room. It would include traditional jail beds as well as "step-down transitional beds," where prisoners would prepare for their life outside the the jail, getting drivers' licenses and writing resumes for jobs under less supervision.

Housing in the proposed re-entry facility would be outside the confines of the jail and women would have some freedom to come and go.

"The county has an opportunity with this facility to design a national model for the treatment of female offenders," McDonald said, though she later added that the site was "not without its challenges."

One challenge is the traveling distance for inmates' families relative to the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood, the county's all-female jail.

The board also is reassessing the entire jail system, looking for solutions to overcrowding that include alternatives to incarceration. Civil rights advocates have pushed for community-based programs that reduce recidivism and treat rather than jail those charged with low-level drug crimes, for example.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who abstained from the 4-0 vote, expressed concern that the board was acting before it had agreed to a more comprehensive plan.

"It seems to me, again, that we have the cart before the horse," Ridley-Thomas said, adding that his abstention last month on a vote to contract for more jail beds at Taft Correctional Center was "haunting" him. His abstention, along with Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's, allowed that motion to pass with three votes.

But today, Yaroslavsky argued that more jail beds would be needed, regardless of the details dictated by a broader plan.

"There's no question we're going to have to do this somewhere," Yaroslavsky said of building more jail space.

Women sentenced to a term in county jail typically serve 10-40 percent of their sentence, depending on the severity of their crime, according to McDonald. Those with sentences of 90 days or less are held only long enough to process the paperwork for their release.

"I do not believe ... that a jail bed is the solution to every problem," McDonald said. But given intense overcrowding at Century, she fully supported the plan for a new women's jail.

Fujioka said the project wouldn't move forward before a comprehensive plan was in place and that he would be back to the board in February to discuss awarding a contract for architectural and engineering work.

Pitchess, he said, would have cost the county more than $100 million in general fund dollars, while the lion's share of the larger capacity Mira Loma would be funded by state AB900 dollars.

The county is seeking another $80 million in separate state funding to build the re-entry facility. The county would put up an estimated $20 million against the entire $180 million in state money.

Ridley-Thomas said he understood the argument for hanging on to the state grant, but said he wasn't ready to agree to increase jail capacity.

"All money ain't good money in terms of where we should be heading," Ridley-Thomas said.

As part of the discussion, Supervisor Gloria Molina said she wanted to change her vote in favor of subcontracting 512 jail beds to Taft Correctional Facility, a move the board made on Sept. 24.

Citing "many legal entanglements," Molina said, "Taft is not ready to move forward."

The board will reconsider the Taft contract at next week's meeting.

-- City News Service