Block Unveils Proposal to Open Twin Towers Jail

After insisting for months that it would take more than $100 million--and drastic cuts in patrols--to open the new Twin Towers jail, Sheriff Sherman Block unveiled a plan Thursday to open the facility in January for far less money and without taking deputies off the streets.

The complex proposal would prompt a wholesale shift of inmates around the county’s vast jail system, slash the cost of running Twin Towers to about $75 million a year and create 1,818 more jail beds. To make the arithmetic work, the Sheriff’s Department would shut down two jails temporarily, but allow the county to recoup $37 million by leasing two other closed county facilities to federal and state authorities to house their prisoners.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the plan in concept but asked county budget officials to study the numbers to ensure the plan is feasible before granting final approval Oct. 10.

“What I see here today is a road map to opening the towers and putting 1,800 criminals behind bars,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who has been a recent critic of Block. “This is a quantum leap. Now he’s got to make it pencil out.”

Asked why the Sheriff’s Department seemed unable to cut the cost of opening the jail until now, Yaroslavsky said: “I’m not going to look back. I’m going to look forward. If I look back, all I see are bad things.”

Although the proposal will certainly ease some of the public and political pressure Block has been under to open the $373-million facility, it is unlikely to make a difference in the vastly reduced sentences inmates have been serving because of overcrowding. Even the sheriff conceded that the addition of 1,800 beds is not enough to force inmates to serve higher percentages of their terms.

“It will not have significant impact” on the early release of inmates, Block said of the proposal. “But it will give the judges a hammer. Those who are released or placed on probation because of a lack of bed space, they will now have jail beds in which to put these people. . . .”

Earlier this year, a series in The Times on the jail system showed that county inmates now serve an average of 25% of their sentences, the lowest in the nation. The newspaper found that once released, many move on to commit new crimes.

The Twin Towers proposal also would provide enough money to keep it operating only through next fiscal year. “After that,” the sheriff said, “I can’t predict.”

Block’s appearance before the board came hours after the supervisors unanimously approved a combination of budget cuts and financial maneuvers to close a $90.6-million hole in the county’s $12.2-billion budget.

During those deliberations, the board rejected a proposal by Supervisor Mike Antonovich to further reduce general welfare payments, which the board cut earlier this year, to provide $19 million to help open Twin Towers.

The board also agreed to scale back an increase in special assessments for fire protection in areas covered by the county Fire Department. The average assessment of $56 per single family home will drop to $51 on upcoming property tax bills.

Most of the board’s activity Thursday, however, focused on opening the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, which has stood empty since its completion last fall on the eastern edge of downtown.

The proposal resulted from two weeks of intense deliberations by an informal task force composed of Block’s top command staff and other leaders of the county criminal justice system, including judges, probation officers and budget analysts.

By approving the plan in theory, the supervisors acknowledged that they were once more gambling on how to fix a criminal justice system that Block said repeatedly Thursday is “in crisis.”

“If it pans out, it is a good plan,” Yaroslavsky said. “If it doesn’t, we go back to the drawing board.”

Other county leaders said they were awaiting more details.

“We need to really look at the numbers, to see the guts,” said Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Sandra Davis. “We don’t have that yet.”

At the core of the task force recommendations is a plan to lease more than 1,800 beds in closed jails and currently operating county facilities to other government agencies.

The proposal calls for leasing 500 beds at the now-closed Mira Loma jail facility to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and hundreds of other beds at the Men’s Central Jail to the U.S. Marshal’s Service. County inmates there would be transferred to the Century Regional Facility in Lynwood, which would undergo an expansion of 592 beds.

Block told the supervisors that the county could receive at least $37 million from such leases during the first year. But a representative of a private jail operator, which is among the five companies also vying to lease the county’s closed jail space, said the sheriff was being unrealistically optimistic. “We feel the numbers are way off,” said Bruce A. Frasco, representing the Wackenhut Corp. “They are overinflating the revenue they can generate.”

During his presentation, Block offered little in the way of hard details on certain aspects of his proposal, even when questioned. Supervisors Gloria Molina and Yaroslavsky, for instance, asked how the sheriff managed to shave $25 million off the cost of operating Twin Towers from his earlier estimates. Block responded that he had “shifted around” personnel and found other cost-cutting measures.

Later, in an interview, Block said he planned to replace many sworn deputies in the jail with lesser-paid civilian custody assistants and to eliminate some amenities for inmates, such as a legal library.

A large number of those who initially would inhabit Twin Towers are inmates already in county custody. Many would come from Sybil Brand Institute for women. That facility, Block said, is in dire need of repair. Meanwhile, moving to a separate tower would be hundreds of high-risk inmates from Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center, where race riots have occurred. They will be replaced by inmates at another facility at Pitchess.

In other matters Thursday, David E. Janssen, the county’s new chief administrative officer, said the $90.6-million budget reduction package crafted by his office includes $15 million in as yet undetermined cuts in spending for salaries, benefits and supplies.

Although no layoffs are expected, Janssen told the supervisors: “I do not anticipate those can be done without pain. . . . There aren’t a lot of easy reductions to be made. . . . The county still faces significant budget issues.”

The package reduces a total of $38 million in programs or finds alternate revenue sources to pay for them. For example, the supervisors agreed to cut spending for their own operations by $1 million. The Sheriff’s Department will see a reduction of $3.8 million because of reduced overtime and vehicle mileage, plus fewer personnel to serve warrants.

But most of nearly $12 million in adjustments to the sheriff’s budget was accomplished by simply changing the source of funding for various programs.

The county was aided in its budget balancing efforts by lower costs for short-term borrowing, a slight improvement in property tax rolls and the surge in the stock market, which sharply increased excess earnings of the county’s pension fund.

The supervisors also heard some encouraging news about a $48-million deficit in the probation department’s budget. Chief Probation Officer Barry Nidorf told them he is not worried that the deficit will force closure of the county’s probation camps for juvenile offenders. Nidorf said the county may receive additional funds for probation from the block grant to the state created by the federal welfare reform law.

As hundreds of general relief recipients watched, the board did not even discuss at length another reduction in monthly payments.

The county’s general relief benefits were cut by 25% to $212 a month last spring as the county struggled with its worst fiscal crisis in history. Antonovich had proposed another $40 a month cut in those welfare benefits.

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The Price Tag

* The jail cost $373 million in taxpayer-backed bonds.

* It has been vacant since completion last fall.

* The public has paid millions of dollars in bond debts.