County foots $10M bill for early release

REPORT: State's parole of low-level prisoners is drain on local services.

The state's early release of non-violent prisoners has cost Los Angeles County about $10 million over the last 15 months, according to a new report.

The state's decision to save money by granting low-level prisoners "non-revocable parole" and letting them out of jail before they had served their entire sentence has put a burden on the county's Mental Health and Sheriff's departments, according to the report from county Chief Executive Officer William Fujioka.

He calculated that between Jan. 1, 2010 and March 25, 2011, the county's Department of Mental Health spent about $9.56 million to serve early release prisoners who had been dropped by the state's Parole Mental Health facilities.

The cost to the Sheriff's Department was pegged at about $415,000, from March 2010 through March 2011, Fujioka said. The estimate was based on the number of hours that deputies spent monitoring early release prisoners.

"Even though the state of California has determined that these particular parolees are now on non-revocable parole, we realize that many of them could continue to commit crimes," said Sheriff's Lt. John Voza, a supervisor at the department's Community-Oriented Policing Services Bureau.

"With no one from the state watching over them anymore or holding them accountable for their actions, the Sheriff's Department felt compelled that we needed to step up, and we needed to keep an eye on them," he added.

County Supervisor Michael

Antonovich urged the state to stop trying to reduce its budget deficit by passing its responsibilities onto the county.

"Just sweeping the dust under the rug doesn't get rid of the dirt," said. "Shifting unfunded mandates to the county without compensation doesn't solve our government's fiscal problems."

The law that allowed the state to carry out its early release program went into effect Jan. 25, 2010, and does not apply to sex offenders, gang members, and anyone convicted of serious or violent felonies.

Jennifer Gimenez Laura Harring Susie Castillo Kate Beckinsale Anna Kournikova