Realignment in the Tri County – AB109 – increasing county jail population

In 2011 Governor Jerry Brown signed AB109, a bill that was to “close the revolving door of low-level inmates cycling in and out of state prisons” which commenced October 1, 2011. At the County level planning process, called the Community Corrections Partnership (CCP), an implementation plan is required to be developed to recommend to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) for the Public Safety Realignment. The CCP is comprised of: the Chief Probation Officer, Chief of Police, Sheriff, District Attorney, Public Defender, Presiding Judge, and a representative from either Dept of Social service or Mental Health appointed by the BOS.

According to a spokesperson within the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office the Executive Committee of the CCP voted on a plan on January 13, 2012 and will be presenting it to the BOS in the near future.

Recently the CDCR issued a press release on their CDCR blog site regarding AB109 realignment stating that NO inmates had been transferred or released. Though this statement is statistically true, so is the following.

In a January 7, 2012 interview with CBS news Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Undersecretary Terri McDonald he stated that the CDCR had hit its first benchmark required by Governor Browns October 2011 realignment plan by “reducing the prison population by 11,000 offenders.” The realignment plan shifts low-level offenders from prison’s to local jails, with plans to shut down the juvenile system, hoping to cut $1.1 billion from the prison budget.

According to Amador County Sheriff Ryan, AB109 has “many moving parts.” He explained that after the October 1, 2011 deadline all newly convicted “non non nons” or N3s, those convicted of a non violent, non sex offense, non serious are now sent to the County of residence jail. Also all N3s scheduled to be paroled from the state correctional facility would be remanded to probation supervision, again from the County of residence. Currently Amador County has had 8 inmates that were released from State prisons and were convicted of new crimes. Under AB109 they were sentenced to the county jail as opposed to state prison. They have had 9 parole revocations due to parole violations, with time now to be served at the County jail.

Calaveras County has had 5 inmates sentenced to its jail instead of prison since the inception of AB109, with an estimated 40 beds to be utilized for this class of inmate within a year. Currently the number of parolees, convicted felons, that have been released under the sole supervision of the Calaveras County Probation Department exceeds the State’s estimate of 1 to 2 per month, this is cause for concern within the DA’s office and law enforcement agencies. A report from the DA’s office claims that, “Two of the paroles, one of whom was in Pelican Bay SHU, are currently at large.”  

In late October 26,000 layoff notices were given to Prison employees throughout the State, the CDCR claiming it was a result of the “shift of work to local governments.” According to a source within the prison system, cuts to inmate medical, dental, education, or access to television, internet and literature have not been affected by AB109.

By, Charity Maness