Crime & Safety

Officials Discuss Funding For State Realignment

Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, and state Senator Bill Emmerson, R-Riverside, hosted a forum on the impact of realignment on Riverside County's prisons at Palm Desert City Hall.

Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach said already stretched local resources will have to "play the cards we are dealt" when dealing with the transfer of state prisoners to county jails under AB109.

Zellerbach made the comment during a forum at Monday afternoon. The event also included Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff, Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, state Senator Bill Emmerson, R-Riverside, and Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit.

“Sometime in December our county jails are going to be full," Zellerbach said. "That leaves the sheriff’s department with some difficult decisions on who to release on an ankle bracelet ... We have to play the cards we are dealt.”

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He added concerns over a lack of dedicated funding for the program, which is aimed to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May that requires the state to reduce overcrowding in its prisons.

A constitutional ballot measure, which could go before voters in November 2012, to create long-term funding for the realignment program.

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Riverside County jails have received 1,212 inmates so far with release dates that run from November to April 2012, according to Probation Department Chief Alan M. Crogan.

“We as a county can actually manage these programs very well. Funding is a major issue that has to be dealt with,” Crogan said.

Crogan said press accounts that 33,000 state prison inmates will be shipped to county jails across the state are accurate.

Under the new program, state inmates who are non-violent, non-serious, non-high risk will be supervised by the Probation Department instead of State Parole, he said, adding that he believes his department will do a better job.

Sheriff Stan Sniff said Riverside County's five jails book 60,000 people a year, but only have room for less than 4,000.

A federal court order in Riverside County requires the county’s jail to release inmates once they are full, Sniff said.

He said that the burden on the jails will be felt, especially since under new sentencing guidelines about 200 convicts will stay in county jails instead of being transferred into state custody.

“That is a tremendous expense when we are already under fiscal constraints," Sniff said, adding that county law enfrocement may face layoffs if the state does not fully fund AB109.

Gov. Jerry Brown pledged support last week to provide counties with reliable realignment funding.


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