Extra beds have allowed jailers to stop forcing inmates to sleep on the floor, a practice that led to a class-action lawsuit, officials said. For more than a year, some inmates at Los Angeles County jails had been sleeping on mattresses on the floor because of crowding but that ended last month, said sheriff's Chief Marc Klugman, who oversees the jail system.
About 500 beds were added by the recent reopening of a wing of the Castaic jail that was closed three years ago because of budget woes. Sheriff's officials said they hoped to free up 800 more beds by working with state officials to get convicted inmates moved to state prisons more quickly.
But a lawyer representing inmates in a federal lawsuit against the county over the floor-sleeping issue said he believed the problem continues. Klugman said the Sheriff's Department also hopes to reduce its controversial early release program. In the past three years, about 200,000 inmates serving time for nonviolent crimes were released early, most after serving only 10 percent of their sentences.
Klugman said that he hopes prisoners now will serve at least 25 to 30 percent of their sentences.