Los Angeles County releases 4,000 inmates as coronavirus 'precaution'
Sheriff warns of 'uncharted territory' after he releases thousands of inmates; insight from Bill Melugin, FOX LA investigative reporter.
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Los Angeles County's decision to release more than 4,000 inmates because of the coronavirus pandemic has the region dealing with "uncharted territory" in terms of the effect on public safety, an investigative reporter told Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night.
Bill Melugin of FOX 11 Los Angeles joined "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to address the Los Angeles County sherriff's recent decision.
"What the sheriff decided to do is, he released 25 percent of the entire inmate population here in L.A. County, and that equates to about 4,300 inmates. Yes, that is a heck of a lot of inmates," Melugin told Carlson. "And the sheriff took a lot of heat, a lot of criticism from the public when he made this decision, because at the same time, he had also tried closing down all of our local gun stores. He had listed them as nonessential businesses."
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"So you could imagine the public hearing that there are thousands of inmates now on the street also being deprived of their ability to buy a gun," Melugin added. "They weren't too thrilled with that."
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has been reducing the inmate population and cutting down on the number of people booked to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in the department's facilities.
Those released were nonviolent criminals in pre-trial detention or those who were finishing their sentences within 30 to 60 days.
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According to Melugin the sheriff thinks the process is working so far but called what he's doing "uncharted territory."
"He said in the interview, this is uncharted territory right here. He said he got pressure from the ACLU and other social activist groups. Two weeks after he made this decision, he started getting letters from those activist groups to release the inmates. Well, he did it," Melugin said. "And he said if these inmates act up, if they don't show up for court, if they start committing crimes again, that's going to look bad for that social justice agenda. And those groups like the ACLU are going to have to rethink what they're doing."
Fox News' Travis Fedschun contributed to this report.
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