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L.A. County would release low-level inmates awaiting trial to ease jail crowding

by Christina Villacorte

With jails bursting at the seams, Los Angeles County justice and public safety officials are seriously considering a gradual release of potentially thousands of low-level inmates - mostly those awaiting trial on petty theft and drug charges - starting with a few hundred next month.

In a report to the Board of Supervisors, county Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka recommended alternatives to jail that include a pilot pretrial release program that would let inmates out without posting bail - if they can pass a risk-assessment analysis and get court approval.

Under the plan, proposed for implementation Nov. 1, the court could also order some inmates released on their own recognizance.

Others inmates could be placed under electronic monitoring via GPS-enabled ankle bracelet; or required to check in with sheriff's deputies, probation officers, work release programs, community detention facilities, or treatment facilities for mental health and substance abuse.

"With the use of a risk assessment instrument and appropriate supervision and services during release, an effective pretrial release program may be implemented," Fujioka said in the report.

"This program will reduce pre-trial detention, ensure that defendants appear in court, and maintain public safety," he added.

Chief Richard Barrantes, commander of the Sheriff's Department's Court Services Division, said the plan is to conduct risk assessment analysis on five to 10 inmates daily from November through January.

The Superior Court's Central District, which covers downtown and East L.A., would be the final authority on which inmates are released, and whether and how they would be monitored.

"The risk to public safety is nonexistent at all, because those being released have gone through a risk-assessment process," Barrantes said.

"These are very low-level inmates, who have no prior violent history, no prior escape issues."

He said most of the inmates were probably eligible for bail but could not come up with the money.

The pretrial release program drew praise from the American Civil Liberties Union - and outrage from a leader of Justice for Homicide Victims, whose 16-year-old daughter was murdered by gang members in Monrovia in 2008.

Hanna Dershowitz, criminal justice and drug policy reform advocate for the ACLU, said pretrial release has proven successful in New York, Washington, D.C., Santa Cruz and many other places.

"The important thing is to recognize that there has been enormous success with very accurately and carefully screening, with validated risk assessment tools, people who are accused of crimes at the pretrial stage," she said.

"Of course, there are people who are a danger and we're not saying those people should be let out pretrial," she added. "But there are also people who are not a danger and not a flight risk, and they are being released pretrial all over the country without negative repercussions."

Jeanette Chavez, who sits on the board of Justice for Homicide Victims, countered that the gang members who opened fire on her daughter, Sammantha, with an Uzi probably started out as low-level offenders, too.

As an alternative to pretrial release, she recommended that the court require they go into the military and better themselves.

"I'm worried these low-risk offenders mostly will go out there and do another crime," Chavez said. "They could end up murdering someone, raping someone, and we don't need that."

The jail population has soared to 18,900 - almost 90 percent of capacity - in the year since Gov. Jerry Brown implemented public safety realignment, which put inmates sentenced after Oct. 1, 2011, for nonviolent, nonserious and nonsexual offenses in county jails instead of state prisons.

About 10,000 inmates in the jail population are pretrial, but Fujioka estimated about half of them are automatically disqualified for release because of their criminal record.

Fujioka said the courts have estimated up to 1,000 inmates could qualify for the pretrial release program each year.

Recent research by corrections expert James Austin and the VERA Institute of Justice both recommended pretrial release. The latter noted the county detains a higher number of pretrial inmates - 55 percent of the jail population - compared with the national average of 39 percent.

County public information officer David Sommers said realignment and budget cuts to the courts are putting pressure on the inmate population, and the county cannot afford to build new jails.

"Since realignment, we've got almost 6,000 additional inmates in our jail population," he said. "With all the budget cuts to the courts, the time it takes for cases to work through the court system is increasing, meaning an inmate could be sitting in jail for an even longer period of time."

Sommers added, "For someone with a DUI, does it make sense for them to sit in jail for an extended length of time before their trial comes up, versus letting that low-level nonviolent offender out on their own recognizance or diverting them into some type of program?"

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_21710660/l-county-would-release-low-level-inmates-awaiting

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Manson follower's release OK'd by parole board

by Linda Deutsch

LOS ANGELES - A parole board panel has recommended the release of a former Charles Manson follower imprisoned for 40 years for a double murder Manson engineered, but it's not the last hurdle Bruce Davis will face as he seeks his freedom.

The recommendation that came Thursday on the eve of Davis' 70th birthday in his 27th parole hearing is subject to a 120-day review period by the entire parole board. If upheld, Gov. Jerry Brown then has 30 days to review the decision, and could reject it as his predecessor Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did the last time parole was recommended.

Some expressed opposition to his release, including the office that originally prosecuted him.

"We certainly disagree with the board's decision," Los Angeles County district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. "We will evaluate how we plan to proceed as the matter goes to Gov. Brown."

She noted that District Attorney Steve Cooley helped persuade Schwarzenegger to stop Davis' release on his prior parole date in 2010.

A parole board then determined then that Davis was ready for release, saying he had no recent disciplinary problems and had completed education and self-help programs.

However, Schwarzenegger reversed the decision, citing the heinous nature of the crimes and saying Davis was still a danger.

Brown's spokesman Gil Duran declined comment after Thursday's hearing, saying the issue had not yet reached the governor's desk. Davis, convicted with Manson and another man in the killings of a musician and a stuntman, was not involved in the infamous Sharon Tate murders in 1969. He was a young man of 30 when he was sentenced to life in prison in 1972 in a case that was a postscript to Manson's notorious reign as leader of the murderous communal cult known as the Manson family.

"While your behavior was atrocious, your crimes did occur 43 years ago," parole board member Jeff Ferguson told Davis, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

Davis long maintained he was a bystander in the killings of the two men, but in recent years he has acknowledged his shared responsibility, and said Thursday he has "made remarkable progress in coming to terms with what I did."

"I want to try to make up for some of the pain and destruction I've caused," Davis said, according to the Tribune.

The hearing was held at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo, where Davis is imprisoned.

His release was opposed by a former Manson family member, Barbara Hoyt, as well as Sharon Tate's sister, Debra Tate, who attended the hearing and said she was disappointed the board "would release a serial killer back in the public."

Davis has been in prison since being convicted with Manson and another follower, Steve Grogan, in the murders of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea.

"I'm pleased and relieved and I hope Bruce's ordeal will be over," said attorney Michael Beckman, who has been fighting for years for the release of Davis.

He said an emotional Davis spoke to the panel at length and took responsibility for his role in the killings. Davis also said he tried to do good for other inmates and would continue ministering for troubled souls on the outside, the lawyer said.

If eventually freed, Davis will go to transitional housing associated with religious groups in Los Angeles County.

Davis became a born-again Christian in prison and ministered to other inmates, married a woman he met through the prison ministry, and has a grown daughter. The couple recently divorced.

Beckman said Davis also earned a master's degree and a doctorate in philosophy of religion.

Beckman said his client is totally rehabilitated and meets state requirements for parole. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira opposed his release.

Few followers of the infamous Manson cult have been released from prison. Grogan was freed in 1985 after he led police to Shea's buried body.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was released from federal prison in 2009 after serving time for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.

Manson and two of his followers, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, remain in prison for life in the Tate killings. Their co-defendant, Susan Atkins, died of cancer behind bars in 2009. Another of the Tate killers, Charles "Tex" Watson, remains in prison.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_21706100/manson-followers-release-okd-by-parole-board