Baca had to goTHE Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department patrols 4,000 square miles, oversees the largest jail system in America—and is in trouble. In February its eight “jail facilities” held an average of 17,362 men and women: more than the 15,300 inmates held in all 63 county jails in New York state. All but one of Los Angeles County’s facilities are overcrowded, and the system as a whole has 38% more prisoners than it is meant to house. In contrast, according to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2014 the average local American jail had room for 17% more prisoners.
The words “jail” and “prison” are often used interchangeably, but they are different. Prisons are long-term facilities run by the state or the federal government. Jails are locally operated, and hold people serving short sentences or deemed too dangerous to release while they await trial. Overcrowding in Los Angeles County’s jails has long been a problem. It peaked in 1990, when high crime rates and longer sentences for drug offenders pushed the average daily inmate population to 22,000. Things were so chaotic that the sheriff’s department once took...Continue reading
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