There is more good news for some Three Strikes inmates now eligible for release due to the passage of Proposition 36 last November. According to local television station KPIX 5, Santa Clara County officials plan to offer rental help to about 70 ex-offenders by paying their rent for their first year out.
“There needs to be a limitation on the amount of money,” said County Supervisor Joe Simitain. “There needs to limitation for how long this help is provided for. We need to make sure that people are working, at least after a reasonable period of time.”
County officials say they will pay as much as $1,000 a month. The final details of the rent subsidy plan have not yet been worked out, but the money will be paid directly to landlords, according to the report.
Proposition 36 gave judges the authority to reduce the life sentences of Three Strikers who committed non-serious/non-violent offenses. Prior to release, the judges have to determine that the offender will not pose a danger to public safety. Some 3,000 inmates are eligible for release.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said he thought the proposition would give the criminal justice system the tool to make the punishment fit the crime
“If they fail again they will go back to state prison at a cost of $60,000-a-year”
The rental assistance program, scheduled to begin January 1, 2014, will be managed by Santa Clara County’s Re-entry Resource Center. Officials say rental assistance aims to help ex-offenders get back on their feet and avoid repeat offenses.
“If they fail again they will go back to state prison at a cost of $60,000-a-year for those of us that are taxpayers or they may end up climbing through our bedroom windows at 3am. That is not something we want to see,” said, Simitian.
