Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to reduce prison overcrowding by shifting offenders away from state prisons to county governments has created a more violent atmosphere in some county jails, according to a report in the Lodi News-Sentinel.
More gang connections and contraband has infected county facilities, the report fi nds. “Some of these guys who have been to prison and would go back to prison are being housed here instead,” said Deputy Dan Rouse of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. “With (realignment) passing, it put the burden on county jails to hold a much more-sophisticated inmate.”
Kim Moule, captain of custody for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, said he found a “level of sophistication and politics” that does not normally present itself at the local county jails.
Last November when California voters passed Proposition 30 (touted to save public schools); a little-known clause in the measure changed the state Constitution to guarantee funding for realignment. The measure is believed to generate approximately $1 billion to be divided among the state’s 58 counties based on the amount of offenders shifted to its jurisdiction.
San Joaquin County is scheduled to receive $17 million in funding from state funds to handle offenders shifted to its jurisdiction, according to the report.
Inmate-on-inmate assaults has increased by a reported 40 percent in the San Joaquin County facility in 2012.
Assaults in Yuba County increased more than twice that percentage, the report fi nds.
Los Angeles County reported jail assaults jumped an average 40 percent as the population escalated by 20 percent in 2012.
Sacramento County Deputy Dan Rouse says he’s seen assaults on staff soar to more 160 percent in one year.
“County jails, which had always been temporary housing facilities, now need to hold inmates for months and years instead of just days,” the report fi nds