INMATES CLOSER TO FREE SHUTTLE

Phone Call Would Provide Released Prisoners With Cab Ride Into Town

The county sheriff will meet with Pacific Bell Monday to hammer out the
final details of a shuttle program that will transport poor inmates back to
town after their release.

Sheriff Pat Hedges and the phone company will discuss how to create a
direct phone line to a local cab company.

A free phone call is the last component of a ride voucher system for
inmates who can't afford a $15 cab ride. The County Jail sits on Highway 1
about four miles outside of San Luis Obispo.

The process began Nov. 16, when Sheriff Hedges requested $1,500 from the
county to fund the program. That was just four days after a legally blind
man, Scott W. Bennett, was released from the jail at night. Bennett was
struck and killed by a car on his walk home on Highway 1.

Hedges said that he had been considering a shuttle before Bennett's death,
but for a different reason.

"Our concern was not about people getting hit by cars," Hedges said in an
interview Wednesday. "We were worried that people released and out on the
highway could be victimized by people driving by."

Bennett's death did spur the department to find a solution to the inmate
transportation problem sooner rather than later, Hedges indicated.

"I think it would be safe to say that what happened to Scott Bennett moved
this particular issue up on our priority list. I mean, we're not going to
turn our back on it," he said.

The $1,500 allocation will pay for 100 cab rides from the Central Coast
Taxi-Cab Company. Hedges said an inmate will qualify for a free taxi
voucher if he has less than $15 on his person. A sign will be posted next
to the pay phone and provide instructions on how to dial a cab for free.
Cab drivers will collect the vouchers from released inmates and return them
to the Sheriff's Department for cash.

The jail releases about 30 inmates every day. The initial $1,500 allocation
is slated to fund rides through June.

Hedges said that the jail's inmate handbook will detail the shuttle option.
Inmates who do not receive the handbook -- fresh arrestees who bail out,
for example -- will either sign a waiver upon their release that notifies
them of the free ride, or be given verbal instructions. Hedges said that he
had not decided yet between the written or oral instructions.

The jail will not post the bus schedule or phone number for CCAT, the only
public transportation available to released inmates, Hedges said. The bus
costs less than $2 and passes the jail four times per day. The company has
said that the bus only stops at the jail if someone calls ahead of time.
The bus doesn't run, however, after 6 p.m.

"We're going to keep it simple," Hedges said. "If they care to call the
bus, they can look up that information in the phone book. We're providing
them with the only transportation that's available 24 hours a day, instead
of leaving them to call a bus company and maybe get no answer."

Hedges said that inmates needing to change big bills for the phone in order
to call a friend or the bus for a ride, will be served if the front-window
clerk has time. The jail's "No Change" sign will not be altered, Hedges
said. He added that the department hopes that the new system will allow the
jail to discontinue the practice of giving change to inmates.

"We don't keep a change bank," he said. "It's not like we have employees
that have nothing to do besides provide change. It's going to be a
time-permits type of thing."