AGN. NO. ___
MOTION BY SUPERVISOR ZEV YAROSLAVSKY

July 24, 2012

As a result of the Governor’s Public Safety Realignment Program, counties are
now responsible for the incarceration of thousands of inmates who were formally held in
state prisons. Los Angeles County is presently housing over five thousand such
inmates and that number is increasing over time. The Board of Supervisors, along with
the Sheriff and CEO, are developing a plan to increase jail capacity and improve the
quality of future facilities which will be built to meet the County’s new obligation. It is
evident, however, that increasing jail space alone will not be sufficient to cope with the
increased inmate population. We need creative additional strategies that further the
goals of community safety, deterrence, and rehabilitation.
One such strategy is to provide a continuum of resources providing rehabilitative
oversight during incarceration and after release. To this end, the Los Angeles County
Sheriff has implemented a series of programs under the rubric of Educational Based
Incarceration which provides inmates with the prospect of beginning their road to
rehabilitation while serving time in our County Jails. The Sheriff has also developed risk
assessment and treatment assessment tools which will identify those inmates who
could benefit from serving the remainder of a given sentence in some form of
rehabilitative facility. By carefully choosing those inmates who have proven receptive to
MOTION
MOLINA

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RIDLEY-THOMAS __________________________
KNABE

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ANTONOVICH

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YAROSLAVSKY __________________________

this approach, while screening for community risk and inmate post release needs, the
Sheriff maintains that he can identify inmates to serve a portion of their sentence in a
rehabilitative setting.
There will never be sufficient jail space to fulfill the burden that the State has
placed upon Los Angeles County. It is essential that our County begin to explore
prudent, innovative, and carefully thought out alternatives to incarceration that can be
crafted in a manner that insures public safety.
I, THEREFORE, MOVE that the Sheriff, in cooperation with the CEO and
Probation, provide this Board with a written report within the next thirty days that
includes:
1) A detailed description of the Sheriff’s assessment tools that will be used to identify
inmates who could serve a portion of their jail sentence in a rehabilitative program.
2) Identification of the universe of inmates from which the Sheriff would select
candidates to serve a portion of their sentence in a rehabilitative program. This
should include: the nature of the charge, the sentence rendered, time remaining on
the sentence and any other criteria that will be employed by the Sheriff to qualify the
inmate for this program.
3) Identification of the facilities and rehabilitation programs that are or may in the future
be available to be utilized for this effort.
4) Identification of potential funding sources and a cost analysis for such a program.
JC S:\Inmate Transition Strategy