Quote:
Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham
The City of Los Angeles ran a larger jail system than L.A. County for many years. This included prisoners kept in cells and tanks at Lincoln Heights Jail, trustees who worked on the prison farm in Saugus and trustees kept at LHJ. The farm was a God Send for drunks who were sentenced to 30, 60 or 90 days to dry out. Many did dry out and once again were able to live a normal life. Others were of course bound to come back. The labor was not forced as in terms of doing something against their will but it gave them a chance to shorten their sentence or learn a trade or occupy their time instead of doing nothing. Counseling was also available in an effort to thwart the effects of drunkenness.
Eventually the city jail system was abandoned and left to the county, only detention prior to arraignment or release from custody were now city jail purposes. The city continued arresting drunks but they served no time and had no chance to dry out. They were instead released upon sobering up and return to the bars and liquor stores to start the process over again. Lot of drunks died because of the loss of this system.
|
Interesting, HG, thanks.
Also interesting that one of the first search results for the Saugus prison farm brings up the story of Bob Mizer, brave founder of the Athletic Model Guild, sent to the farm for six months for disseminating obscene material in 1947. More surprising than the conviction is that he only needed to wait six years for the US Supreme Court to overturn the decision.
The Advocate
Is it related to the Pitchess Honor Rancho?
LA County Sheriff
LA Times article on a prison farm break in 1986.