The Sheriff’s Department said jail occupancies have remained consistent because the agency has typically processed and released misdemeanor arrestees after giving them a future court appearance date, even after accepting bookings for more offenses.
In other instances, he said officers were sometimes forced to release arrestees in the Vista jail parking lot after learning they weren’t eligible to be booked.
While the release of hundreds of inmates made headlines, changes to Sheriff’s Department policies dictating which offenses police can book low-level arrestees in jail for have played out more quietly.
Shortly after the arrests, police set up a press conference exposing the identities of the arrestees.
Some lawyers and others who work with inmates complained that the group was treated more favorably than other arrestees, including protesters who were arrested during social justice demonstrations last summer.
The Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring survey (ADAM) was terminated in March, and not one congressmen tried to save it.