No cuts in store for Los Angeles County jails after all
Early last summer, Baca said he might have to close part or all of the Men’s Central Jail, or the North facility jail, because of a growing public funding crisis.
“There will be no jail closures, and no portion of a jail will be closed,” said Steve Whitmore, the department’s spokesman. “There will no reductions in services in unincorporated areas and no reductions in detectives.”
Instead, the department will use unspent funds and new revenue streams to cover the gap. Whitmore said the department would get $10 million of additional state revenue for housing inmates awaiting transfer to prisons and use $7 million in funds left over from programs last fiscal year. It will also use $3 million in revenue from cities that contract with the department for law enforcement, $1 million in miscellaneous revenue, $2.5 million in cuts to specialty medical clinic services and $1.5 million in reductions to fixed assets.
Whitmore said the county has agreed that it doesn’t need to implement $22 million more in potential cuts.
-- Richard Winton
So he cried wolf! to try to get more money out of the county and when that didn't work this time - even Antonovich the conservative Republican who's part of his political clique chewed him out for refusing to make do wit
h a small cut out of a $12 BILLION dollar budget - he "found" the money after all.
Just like he played it with the DNA rape kit issue: threatened to stop ALL testing even though the LAPD was crucified for not testing all the kits, until more money could be found and miraculously, some testing continues. Plus they got lucky with some federal funding.
Meanwhile, his deputies seem far less well-trained than the LAPD which has been under a microscope: numerous suspicious shootings of unarmed suspects, letting the young woman out on foot in the middle of the night from Topanga/ Malibu station this weekend after confiscating her car and knowing she had no money; then it turns out, even though the woman's mother had called Sheriffs to say she was driving in for her daughter from Pomona, but they released her without telling her to wait.
Leroy Baca had better stop meddling in local politics making endorsements and even playing nasty politics with false allegations against candidates who don't play ball with him. He should stop sticking his nose in matters like who gets a CITY golf cart contract on CITY golf courses. I'm glad he was willing to admit he was wrong and Bratton right over their bet on what caused the biggest correlation to reduced crime, good policing (Bratton's claim) or economic conditions, but he'd better get his house in order and stay out of the media for a while.
Posted by: sue | September 22, 2009 at 07:17 PM
Breaking News: LA times is a hypocrit and limits free speech!
Why didn't my comments, which are far from inappropriate, not get posted? Screening for biased political views is akin to govt run media.
Posted by: Citizen | September 25, 2009 at 05:40 AM