Many California counties say they need more money to cope with additional prisoners kept in local jails instead of being shipped to a state prison.
That was the main thing officials told Gov. Jerry Brown when he visited California counties last year to assess the impact of the prison Realignment plan, which took effect in October 2011.
The counties said they need more money for new jail cells, inmate mental health counseling and education and rehabilitation programs, among other issues.
“I can report … that Realignment is working,” Brown said to a gathering of the state’s major law enforcement organizations last April.
After meeting with Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller in January, Brown said he would look through the Capital “cookie jar” to see if he could find more money for counties. “I’m still waiting to see what he found in his cookie jars. I haven’t heard anything back yet,” said Miller.
The governor visited 10 counties between January and April last year, touring jails and meeting with inmates as well as with sheriffs, district attorneys, judges, county supervisors, police chiefs and probation officers to discuss the Realignment law, reported The Associated Press in an April 20 story.
Criticism of the law from crime victim advocates, Republican lawmakers and some county officials is that “it is creating the same kind of overcrowded conditions in county jails that gave rise to the federal court intervention in the state prison system,” the AP reported.
“Overcrowding is forcing many counties to release convicts after serving only a fraction of their sentences … and the harder-core inmates that counties are now housing have led to an increase in violence in the state’s largest jail systems,” the article continued.
The state has provided nearly $2 billion for jail construction since 2007. Riverside County is using $100 million of the state money to build housing for about 1,300 jail inmates. Sheriff Stan Sniff and Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff Stone told the AP much more money is needed.
Stone noted he had suggested the governor streamline environmental reviews for new jails. The governor “said he thought it was a good idea … he would look into it. I haven’t heard a thing,” Stone said.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood worried that county jails built to hold criminals for no more than a year are now housing them for a decade or more. Brown has proposed modifying the law so that inmates sentenced to more than 10 years would serve their time in state prisons, reported the AP.
“Three years, from my standpoint, might be reasonable,” Youngblood said, convinced the sentence should be shorter for jail time.
Brown cautioned in the law enforcement gathering in April that the state could not overspend. He said he realized local officials are under “a lot of stress,” reported AP.
Diane Cummins, the governor’s special adviser on Realignment, said “…the state is unlikely to increase the operating funds it provides counties, but it might help with county-provided mental health and drug treatment programs.”
One key to making Brown’s Realignment law work is having enough classroom space and money to provide drug and alcohol treatment and other programs that can keep criminals from committing new crimes, said Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson and County Supervisor Vito Chiesa, the story said.
Stanislaus County benefited from an $80 million state grant to build a new housing unit holding 456 inmates and will include classrooms and areas where criminals on probation can receive services, AP reported.
“The take-home message (to the governor) is, if you want to see success in Realignment, then the counties and local governments need help with the resources to do that,” said Christianson.
