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County pays $1.5 million to aid homeless inmates
By Alison Hewitt, Staff Writer

For five years, the sheriff's Community Transition Unit has tried to connect homeless inmates with services before releasing them from jail. Now, Los Angeles County hopes to expand the program.

As part of a $100 million homelessness prevention plan, $1.5 million was set aside to hire a nonprofit to continue the work.

"Study after study has shown that jail isn't helping people. It's making things worse," said Brian Center, the unit's commander. "The only way to keep them off the street or out of jail is to get them services."

Before the Sheriff's Department got involved, homeless inmates were likely to be released from jail in downtown Los Angeles with nothing to do but walk a few blocks south to Skid Row, officials said. From there, many ended up back in jail, said Center, who emphasized most are in for drug or other nonviolent charges.

Garrison Smith, the county's homeless coordinator, said there's no opportunity for the former inmates to stabilize.

"If they don't have anything to go to when they leave prison, then why wouldn't they end up back on the street?" Smith said.

It costs more money to house them in jail than to provide services, he added.

"These aren't special services," Smith said. "These are benefits that anyone who's destitute qualifies for."

But the services are hard to find for the 2,000 people a month the unit helps. Homeless inmates often need supportive housing, job placement, drug treatment and Social Security income or general relief income, Center said.

"There's a bias," Center said. "There's a perception that people coming from jail are scary, when in fact a lot of these guys are not. They just need some help. They're just homeless people who got caught up in the justice system."

Center and his team link inmates to services all over the county - places such as Tarzana, Lancaster, and locally, the Central San Gabriel Valley Worksource Center in El Monte. Program manager Gordon Porter said that of the 2,000 people who use the center to find jobs each month, about 80 are recently released inmates.

"The fact that you have a criminal background prevents you from getting most apartments and jobs," Smith said. "So they end up on Skid Row."

But the El Monte center has relationships with employers willing to hire people with records, Porter said. A grocery store recently hired 13 of their "special needs" clients, he added, though he was reluctant to specify which store.

"People are prejudiced," Porter said. "But we have more successes than failures."

In fact, the center has found that its clients with records are more likely to keep their jobs for a year than the rest of the people who use the center, Porter said.

El Monte Councilman Juventino "J" Gomez said he was unaware of the county's efforts to find services for recently released inmates.

"If they're not from El Monte, then I don't want them coming to El Monte," Gomez said. "We'll deal with our own homeless population."

The Sheriff's Department should let El Monte police know if it sends people to the city, Gomez added.

"Everyone needs an opportunity for rehabilitation ... And we want to provide services, but we want to provide services to our community," he said. "I was not aware of the criminal element, and that puts up a big red flag that I will need to follow up on."

That's a common reaction, Center said, and added that most of the former inmates return to neighborhoods where they have friends or family, although that isn't always the case.

Center calls the people who cycle through the jail again and again "frequent fliers."

"The folks we're dealing with, they're just mentally ill or drug addicted and they just need help, or they'll be back in jail 50 times," he said. "All it would take is a little bit of money to help them stabilize their life. It's a no-brainer to me."

Bonnie
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