Six years after California lawmakers authorized $1.2 billion for counties to build more jail space, not a single county has finished construction, according to the Sacramento Bee.
“Since then, demands for county jail space has spiked due to a 2011 California law that redirected lower-level offenders to counties rather than state prisons,” the Bee reported.
Officials in the counties cited a maze of bureaucratic state hurdles that prove too difficult to navigate.
According to the Bee, “state officials provided the counties with an 80-page document explaining the requirements, such as verifying property ownership, revenue sources and design plans.”
“The red tape is unbelievable. It’s not an easy process,” said Manuel Perez, Madera County’s corrections director.
Madera County is one of the few counties that have managed to build new space with state funds. However, the $30 million, 144- jail bed expansion is not expected to be completed until late 2013.
Other county sheriffs released nearly 153,000 (28 percent) inmates in 2012.
“State officials in 2011 chose to fund counties that had sent the most criminals to prison,” the Bee reported, “thus recognizing that the same counties were also likeliest to need more jail space after the state began redirecting inmates their way in 2011.”
Projects in bigger counties, such as Orange and Los Angeles, are not expected to be completed for at least five years.
Sacramento County, ranked seventh in the state for sending offenders to prison, had its application denied, but county officials plan to reapply for similar funds, the Bee reported.
The state has authorized another $500,000 to build local correctional facilities in addition to the $1.2 billion already approved. Curtis Hill of the Board of State and Community Constructions wants smaller counties funded with these appropriations.
Don Specter, director of the Prison Law Office, is opposed to expanding bed space in the county jails. He filed federal lawsuits against the state, Fresno and Riverside counties for poor jail conditions imposed on inmates.
He argues, “Fewer people need to be held in jails prior to trial and more need to be sentenced in ways that don’t involve incarceration, such as GPS.”
Specter “supports the focus of the latest jail construction,” the Bee reports, as long it “provides more mental health and rehabilitation services.”
