LA County “dead-for-now motion” says redefining crime needed to empty jails

Metric fixation much? Many CA'n lawmakers believe anything—even freeing serious criminals—is worth it to reduce jail occupancy. Over in LA County, a decarceration proposal (via releasing offenders with $50k-or-less bails) was recently tabled as being hasty. Nonetheless, the OC Register points out that other liberal CA'n counties might succeed with similar laws, especially considering Supervisor Ellenberg's tenacity in pushing decarceration plan... after decarceration plan.

So it took law enforcement and others by surprise when Los Angeles County Supervisors Hilda Solis and Lindsay Horvath sought to declare a “humanitarian crisis” in jails and order several county offices to create or expand programs keeping people out of jail, some even after they’ve been convicted. This plan would have left out major felons, most of whom are locked up by the state, not counties.

Their plan blindsided police, prosecutors and many local officials, whose cities would have received the released prisoners had decarceration taken place.

They quickly protested, and the Solis-Horvath proposal evaporated from the agenda for the county board’s next meeting. Two other supervisors, including board chair Janice Hahn, immediately announced they would not vote for their colleagues’ plan, so it was essentially tabled, possibly to arise again after it undergoes major alteration.

The opposition was led by the county’s 45-member police chiefs association and a group of “contract cities” which lack their own police forces and buy law enforcement services from the county sheriff. Also in opposition was the local Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which has been embroiled in several disputes with ultra-liberal District Attorney George Gascon, accused by many of his deputies of favoring criminals over their victims....

But while Californians can reverse state laws they believe are unwise, as they did in 2020, there is no recourse locally other than voting entrenched supervisors out, with changes then wrought by their successors.

All of which means decarceration may not quite be dead, and could in fact arise in other counties with liberal board majorities.

This article originally appeared in the Orange County Register. Read the whole thing here.

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