Sheriff Roy Dominguez wants more members of the Lake County legal community to back his book-and-release proposal after a U.S. Justice Department civil rights investigation found problems with inmate care at the county Jail.

Dominguez claims the release plan would use electronic surveillance to divert hundreds of people charged with minor offenses and who cannot afford bail from incarceration.

He says reducing the jail population would help resolve some of the civil rights violations the Justice Department detailed in a 34-page report made public last week. It found deficient inmate care partly caused by too few medical and mental health workers for the jail population.

Superior Court Judge Julie Cantrell says judges are having a hard time agreeing on which offenses would qualify for book-and-release.