LA County says County Jail inmates will serve at least 25% of their sentences. I feel safer already.

Under fire for an early-release program that freed many Los Angeles County inmates after they’d served just 10 percent of their time, Sheriff Lee Baca and District Attorney Steve Cooley are scheduled to announce today that all inmates must now serve at least 25 percent of their sentences before being eligible for release.

The new policy will take effect at the end of the year and will apply to all inmates sentenced to county jail.

Since Baca began releasing inmates early in mid-2002 as a result of budget problems, more than 150,000 inmates have been freed early, many after serving only 10 percent of their sentences.

Of those, about 16,000 were rearrested and charged with new crimes, including nearly 3,500 for violent offenses and at least 16 for murder.

“We are always looking for ways to do our job better,” Baca said Wednesday of the new plan. “We run the largest jail system in the world … This new policy will move us forward to where one day all inmates will serve the entire time required.”

Somewhere along the line, I think time off for “good behavior” became time off for showing up for breakfast.