This is scary.

LOS ANGELES – The head of the nation's largest sheriff's department is warning that nearly 4,000 jail inmates might be released early and about 600 deputy and professional positions could be eliminated to meet budget cuts.

Owing to the economic crisis, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department faces a $71 million cut to its $2.5 billion budget in the coming fiscal year.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca told The Associated Press on Monday it looks as if he'll have to close two jails and eliminate the positions of the staff at those facilities.

"There's no way around me cutting $71 million out of the budget that won't affect having to close a jail or two," Baca said. "I have to start cutting."

Baca hasn't finalized plans, but said he was looking at closing two of the county's 10 jail facilities: the old central jail, which houses about 2,300 inmates; and part of another facility in Castaic in the north of the county that houses about 1,500 inmates. Violent offenders from the closed jails would be housed in other facilities.

Closing those facilities would eliminate positions for about 400 of the department's 10,000 deputies and another 200 or so civilian jobs would be lost too. The job cuts would come primarily through a hiring freeze.

Of the inmates that would be released early, Baca said he'd first look to nonviolent offenders who are awaiting trial.

Baca was forced to take similar action during an unforeseen downturn from 2002-05, when his department grappled with $180 million in cuts.

The department provides law enforcement for 40 cities, dozens of unincorporated communities and 4 million residents. The department also runs the county's jail system, which has a population capped at 20,000 and includes 700 people accused of murder awaiting trial.

chit happpens in Cali

I hope it doesn't start happening everywhere.

I hate to be a Gloomy Gus, but it probably will. They'll start releasing non-violent offenders and those who are close to their release date first. They may push along some who are close to parole, etc. It's sad, but true.

I think you probably are right. Heavy sigh.

WHY DONT they just release them into the army. Send them off to war???

considering how many people are in jail for marijuana-related "crimes," hopefully a lot of those "criminals" are released... no sense in jailing someone for such a stupid thing.

ACLU fought that one down.

Time to get your guns folks!

Because that would be violating their civil rights, ironic, no?

legalize so called victimless crimes and tax problem solved

they dont want them """"alices restaurant""""

You can get anything you want in Alice's Restaurant, cepting Alice...

In 2007, there was talk about releasing inmates. The decision was reversed when Law Enforcement was given more funding.
I wonder, because, there are no set dates for them to begin releasing or any further plans. Just that they might have to.

Cincinnati close a minimum security jail downtown and released 800 inmates. Crime rose that night.

Wow, when did that happen?

The military stopped accepting people on those terms years ago. They got tired of being a dumping ground for problem people that the jail system didn't have room for.

Yeah...just what we need. Lawless people in the military representing the United States.

I find that, send them to the military crap, sort of insulting to the people who serve honorably. Discipline is the backbone of service and people who have committed violent crimes, crimes of opportunity and sexual crimes are not disciplined people.

I saw this article in Slate that provides some good info on the current state of U.S. prisons. It is alarming that the U.S. as the article states has the largest prison population in the world.

Below is an exert from the article with a link to more information.

Hope you all find this information enlightening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The United States has a prison population like nowhere else. With one out of every 100 adults behind bars, our incarceration rate is the highest in the entire world. Our inmates—1.5 million in prison, with another 800,000 in jail—comprise one-third of the world's total. This is a surprisingly recent development. After barely budging for 50 years, our incarceration rate increased sevenfold (to 738 per 100,000 people) between 1978 and 2008.

The system is now at its breaking point. Federal judges in California just issued a tentative order demanding that the state release nearly 60,000 inmates over the next three years to alleviate intolerable overcrowding. New York state's sentencing commission released a 326-page report calling on the Legislature to cut back on severe drug sentences. And with budgets growing ever-tighter in a collapsing economy, states are beginning to realize that large prison populations are boom-time luxuries they can no longer afford.

Reform is inevitable. But if we are going to rein in our prison populations, we should do so based on facts, not on unfounded perceptions or shocking anecdotes. So let's start by dispelling some of the myths that surround the breathtaking prison growth of the past three decades.

Five Myths
http://www.slate.com/id/2211585/

yea but if you send them into the army when they get out they could use that training to come back at the rest of the gen. pop. i helped with a studie on gang members and one guy that was in some latin gang in l.a. went into the marines and when we got back out went back to his gang trained them and he went off and killed like 2 cops and injured idk how many more but that was guy think if they released how ever many and some of them took just 50 of them in a area? that would be the dumbest idea ever