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Read other letters about this article
Like the Paris Hilton story. Look at how many so-called journalists erupted in heated public outrage when Lee Baca tried to give Hilton an early release.
Not a single one of those so-called journalists had a thing to say in the way of an apology when the staff at the LA Times went through the actual incarceration statistics for the county jail system and found that most female DUI probation violators get sent to home detention.
The real story behind Paris Hilton's "outrageous" and failed early release was a county jail system that is badly overcrowded.
Nobody cared! An overcrowded jail system is not a sexy story. It wasn't sexy or scandalous enough to warrant coverage in Salon.
BUT happily, the enormous outpouring of misguided rage over Paris Hilton proved to be a good thing for Sheriff Lee Baca. It gave him a good platform for fighting back.
He fought back and he won. Now they're building a new county jail, and the ACLU is consulting in its design.
Along with the new jail, there will be a formal system in place to prevent overcrowding, using home detention and early release.
So sometimes good things do come out of scandal. We will have a safer county jail, and the prosecutors and the lawmakers will be fully forewarned that if they incarcerate too many people for the jail system to handle, then some prisoners WILL be sent home early.
