Block on Pitchess Center

* Regarding your editorial of Feb. 4 about the disturbances at the Pitchess Detention Center:

You recommend transferring personnel from other lightly staffed but calmer facilities. Other than the Pitchess Detention Center, the other facilities are the Men’s Central Jail, the Sybil Brand Institute for Women and the Century Regional Detention Facility. Each of these facilities is operating with minimal staffing and can hardly provide personnel as you suggest.

I find it somewhat ironic that when major budget cuts were being imposed on my department, and I indicated that I would be forced to close jail facilities, which in turn would exacerbate an already serious problem, I was accused of budget-time gamesmanship. With the loss of $180 million from my operating budget, which translated into a personnel reduction of more than 1,000, we are beginning to see the results that I predicted.

You mention that we do not need a new facility. I agree with that statement, but we do need to staff the Twin Towers facility, which has been built at great taxpayer expense and is standing vacant because of a lack of funding. The ability to house 4,000 high-security inmates in that facility would pretty much alleviate the current problem, which is a product of the makeup of our inmate population--70% pre-adjudicated and only 30% sentenced.

SHERMAN BLOCK

Los Angeles County Sheriff