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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: March 25, 2009

Last Friday, Pasco Sheriff Bob White dropped a surprise on the Pasco County Public Safety Coordinating Council, which brings together officials of county government, the court system, law enforcement, probation and mental health to work out issues related to the county's two jails. White said he is disbanding the Sheriff's Office unit that oversees criminal defendants whom judges have released from jail on their own recognizance. With the Pasco public sector strapped for cash, the Sheriff's Office wants to shift the money it has been spending on supervised ROR to other areas of its operations.

Neither Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe nor Pasco County Court Judge William Sestak liked White's plan to scuttle the ROR unit. Doing so might make judges reluctant to grant accused persons supervised ROR status while awaiting trial, swelling the jails' already overcrowded populations, Sestak suggested.

In response, Sheriff's Office corrections officials and the vice president of the state association for the bail bond industry told Sestak they think that is unlikely to occur.

If they're wrong, however, either the Florida Department of Corrections or the federal courts - or maybe both - could demand a reduction in swollen jail populations. So the Sheriff's Office may want to wait just a bit before spending any money it expects to save by doing away with its ROR unit - just in case it needs it.

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