By Emma Colton , Bill Melugin, Fox News, 4/3/23
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is considering a plan to “decarcerate” jails by citing and releasing anyone with bail at $50,000 or less, city documents show.
An agenda item has been added to the board’s Tuesday meeting titled “Los Angeles County to Take Actionable Next Steps to Depopulate and Decarcerate the Los Angeles County Jails,” Fox News has learned
The measure was introduced by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis, both Democrats, and only has one public comment attached to it.
The proposal outlines that it would “Declare the State of mental health services and overcrowding in the Los Angeles County jails a humanitarian crisis, requiring the County to move with all deliberate speed on meaningful solutions; and prioritize decreasing the number of individuals entering the Los Angeles County Jails.”
If passed, the local sheriff would be instructed to review its bail thresholds and to cite and release “individuals with aggregate bail amounts set at $50,000 or below.”
The Los Angeles Superior Court would be directed to “implement the Emergency Bail Schedule that was in place at the height of the COVID pandemic” in an effort to “prioritize increased opportunities for pre-trial release.”
The vice president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, Eric Siddall, slammed the agenda item as “dangerous.”
“The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ (BOS) motion to gut parts of the criminal justice system without input from stakeholders is dangerous and recklessness,” Siddall told Fox News. “The authors sought no advice from those who know and understand public safety issues. They seek to lower the jail population without addressing the root causes of crime or protecting the public.”
He said that under the proposal, law enforcement officers would be directed to cite and release suspects accused of illegally carrying a firearm, and those arrested on charges such as domestic violence, possession of child pornography, residential burglary, robbery or assault with a firearm.
Activists in Los Angeles called for the closure of the Men’s Central Jail in the downtown area of the city last week, protesting near the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Thursday morning, according to KTLA.
They demanded that the Board of Supervisors commit to a closure timeline that would shutter the jail by March 2025.
The protests came after it was reported that three inmates in L.A. died over the course of one week, including one in the Men’s Central Jail.
Siddall added in his criticism of the agenda that it does not include how to “protect the community from violent criminals.”
“This catch-and-release program comes without any plan or infrastructure to protect the community from violent criminals apprehended by law enforcement. Further, it creates no lockdown facilities for the mentally ill. This program benefits no one, except for career criminals. We need to make sure the most dangerous offenders don’t get out, that first-time offenders don’t come back and that those with serious mental illnesses get appropriate care and help. This does none of that,” Siddall said.
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