Governor Jerry Brown’s realignment strategy to reduce state prison overcrowding is presenting challenges for county sheriffs. California county jails now house more than 1,100 inmates serving sentences of five years or more in jails designed for stays of a year or less.
“We are not set up to house inmates for this period of time,” said Nick Warner, the California State Sheriffs’ Association’s legislative director.
According to a report by the Sheriffs’ Association, in addition to finding space in their often-crowded jails, counties must provide specialized programs that are more costly than those for traditional county jail inmates.
The Sheriffs’ Association found that out of the 1,153 inmates in county jails sentenced to at least five years, 44 inmates are serving sentences of 10 years or more. Most of the inmates are sentenced for vehicle theft, identity theft, and burglary, although a Riverside County inmate is serving nearly 13 years for felony child abuse and a Solano County inmate is serving more than 10 years as a serial thief.
The report covering all but six of the state’s counties shows that the Los Angeles County Jail is holding 35 percent of all long-term inmates, including one sentenced to 43 years for drug trafficking.
According to the Associated Press, the number of long-term inmates in county jails will keep growing as the state diverts more low-level inmates from state prisons to comply with the realignment policy, which resulted from federal court orders to reduce the population in the state’s 34 adult prisons.
Before the realignment in 2011, the only prisoner who might have spent more time than a year in a county jail would be someone awaiting trial in a complicated case such as murder.
Although the number of long-term inmates represents less than two percent of the 77,000 prisoners who can be housed in California’s 58 county jails, sheriffs say they command a disproportionate amount of money and attention. Sheriffs contend in the report that most county jails lack the large exercise yards, classrooms, and treatment space required for inmates who are incarcerated for years instead of a few months.
Jeffery Callison, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, acknowledged that sheriffs need a different type of facility to handle long-term inmates, but he noted that state lawmakers authorized $500 million last year to help counties renovate jails and add space. “The jails are getting modernized,” Callison said. “They’re able to offer programs to their inmates.”
According to the Associated Press, lawmakers have approved $1.2 billion in bonds for building new jails, many of which are under construction.
Communities are getting $865 million in operating monies through the state fiscal year, budgeted to exceed $1 billion next year.
“The U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to dramatically reduce its population,” said Elizabeth Ashford, a spokesperson for the governor. “Rather than release prisoners early, the state is complying through realignment.” The state will keep helping counties as they implement the policy, she added.
