Send Cons Home to Do Time, Says Paris Sheriff

The sheriff who put Paris Hilton on mansion arrest is now championing a bill that would curb the overcrowding in California jails by sending thousands of other Los Angeles County inmates home to carry out their sentences. Some 2,000 low-level offenders would be tracked via ankle monitoring devices under the plan.

The move would save money, too, backers argue, since it costs $10 a day to confine inmates at home, compared with $70 behind bars. Ironically, prisoner rights' advocates are fighting the move, saying it would deprive inmates of prison health care. Some lawmakers oppose the bill for being too easy on cons. But Sheriff Lee Baca says inmates on house arrest would actually serve longer punishments. (More LA County Jail stories.)