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| Closing LA Jails Raises Concern |
| By NBC LA News |
| Published: 02/25/2009 |
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Sheriff Lee Baca comes under fire from Los Angeles County officials for suggesting he may need to close Men's Central Jail and a second lockup due to budget restraints. LOS ANGELES -- Sheriff Lee Baca came under fire from Los Angeles County officials Tuesday for suggesting he may need to close Men's Central Jail and a second lockup due to budget restraints. Baca told the Los Angeles Times that closing the downtown jail might be needed to close an estimated $72 million budget gap in the department's overall $2.5 billion budget. That prediction was met with consternation by top county officials, who said Baca's comments were premature. "I think it's particularly in light of the sheriff's comments that everyone understands that the board has not had a discussion on anything ... on what our actual numbers are," Supervisor Don Knabe said. "It's somewhat unfair to start (calling this a) closing-jails and taking-deputies-off-the-street kind of a situation because this board has been very supportive of that department, but that conversation has not taken place," Knabe said. William Fujioka, the county's chief executive, asked county department heads to look at ways to cut their budgets by 5 percent. Fujioka told The Times that the reductions in the sheriff's budget, still in early drafts, do not include requests to reduce spending by $72 million, as Baca contends. Baca acknowledged that closing Men's Central Jail might be avoided, but he said the sheriff's department cut $150 million from its budget one year during the 2001-02 recession. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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