From the Los Angeles Times
Hilton case sheds light on sentencing process
Jail overcrowding means there's little judges can do to ensure that offenders serve most of their time in custody. By Jack Leonard Times Staff Writer
June 22, 2007
Don't expect other inmates released early from the Los Angeles County Jail to be thrown back in to serve their full sentences, despite what happened to Paris Hilton.
That's the consensus among top judges and prosecutors who say there are a variety of practical, political and legal issues that prevent challenging Sheriff Lee Baca's policy of releasing inmates well before their sentences end.
Many of his colleagues privately applaud the decision by Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer to return the hotel heiress to custody after she was released after spending less than four full days in jail on a 45-day sentence. But judges said the practical realities of jail overcrowding and the fact that judges rarely learn when defendants are released mean there is little they can do to halt the practice.
Court administrators insist that most judges also appreciate the difficulties that confront the sheriff in trying to manage an overcrowded, violence-prone jail system that is the largest in the country.
"This has been a give and take for the 19 years that I've been on the bench," said Los Angeles County Presiding Judge J. Stephen Czuleger. "There's occasional frustration among individual judges, but they recognize that we're both part of a large system
and at the end of the day they have to make sure that the system doesn't collapse."
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