Justice, Welfare Officials Warn Supervisors of Trouble if They Don’t Get More Funds

A chorus of top county officials warned Thursday of trouble ahead in criminal justice and welfare programs ranging from shutdown of probation camps to slashing welfare benefits and jobs unless there is an infusion of funds in the coming fiscal year.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti came after Sheriff Sherman Block’s plea to county supervisors for more money to open additional jail beds with a request of his own for an additional $16 million for an array of programs from raises for prosecutors to upgrading his much-criticized child support collection system.

Chief Probation Officer Barry Nidorf told the supervisors that a loss of $48 million in federal support, unless restored or replaced by state funds, would leave him no choice but to once again recommend closing Los Angeles County’s probation camps for young offenders.

The only other option would be to close all field services, which he said was unacceptable. Nidorf said the huge gap in his department’s budget was not just a problem for probation, but for the entire county government. He suggested that a cut of that magnitude cannot be borne by his operation alone and that the pain should be shared with other departments.

Social Services Director Eddy Tanaka said that unless the county receives help from Sacramento he may have to limit the county’s general relief recipients to three months of benefits per year and lay off 1,800 welfare workers.

But it was the criminal justice, criminal defense and public safety issues that dominated the board’s daylong budget hearing, part of a spring ritual before the supervisors get down to the business of adopting a 1996-97 spending plan.

The other requests paled by comparison to the sheriff’s urgent demand for funds to open at least one tower of the high-security Twin Towers jail downtown to deal with a jail crisis that has led to the early release of inmates.

Garcetti, who faces a runoff election in November, defended the computer system used to pursue deadbeat parents who don’t pay child support.

The system has come under heavy criticism for years and was ranked next to last in overall performance of all 58 California counties, according to a recent report by a coalition of children’s advocacy groups.

“We must do more and we can do more,” Garcetti said. “Our performance is unacceptable to me and my staff.”

Using a series of charts to take sharp issue with his critics, Garcetti said the collection of child support has improved dramatically and argued that the computer system is working as intended to track cases and locate those not paying child support.

Altogether, Garcetti asked for 240 new jobs in the district attorney’s office, including hiring 50 people to assist in maintaining the child support computers. He renewed his demand that prosecutors be paid on a par with members of the county counsel’s office and he asked for help in dealing with an explosion in felony case filings sparked by the state’s “three strikes” law for serious offenders.

After making the case for boosting his office’s budget, Garcetti acknowledged in an interview the need to open the Twin Towers jail.

“We must open up the Twin Towers. It’s affecting not just those of us in law enforcement, it will affect everybody,” Garcetti said. He said the early releases of inmates have resulted in tragic circumstances and “we’re going to continue to have tragedies. We have to open up the jail.”