“I already didn’t feel safe in my own neighborhood,” says lifetime Sherman Oaks resident Ron Sorrentino. “Now this … it’s not good.”

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca released 343 nonviolent offenders from the county jail system this week, well before they had served their full sentences. The Sheriff’s Department says that budget cuts have forced changes to a longtime policy requiring inmates to serve at least 80 percent of their time before release. Now, those jailed for crimes such as check kiting, petty theft, and drunk driving will serve just 50 percent of their sentences.

Law enforcement is crying out louder than citizens like Sorrentino, analysts say...

A parolee and documented gang member was convicted Monday of murder in the 2009 slaying of a 4-year-old boy in Echo Park, authorities said.

Howard Astorga, 26, was convicted by a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury of one count each of first degree murder and shooting at an unoccupied motor vehicle, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

Jurors also found that Astorga carried out the crime to benefit the Diamond Street gang, according to authorities…

OUR economic problems and California's budget crisis have impacted every level of government: state, county and city. Painful cuts have been and will continue to be made in all areas. Inevitably up and down the state, counties and local governments are looking at another year of reduced budgets and additional cuts. I write this to share with you what impacts these cuts will have on public safety and on our communities.

Legislators wrote and passed Senate Bill 18 (SBX3 18), which took effect Monday. This measure was written as a way for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to decrease its budget by cutting the amount of time sentenced inmates serve in prison by increasing sentencing credits for jail and prison inmates. It also removes certain prisoners who would normally be released on a supervised parole, meaning the parolee would have a parole agent and a detailed program of re-entry, and places them on unsupervised parole, better known as summary parole…