Jail overcrowding due to Governor Brown Prison Realignment under A.B. 109 is forcing San Bernardino County to release prisoners early. County supervisors will study the impacts of the realignment plan on Tuesday, April 16, at 10 a.m. (File Photo)
San Bernardino, CA – Overcrowded jails and a rise in property crimes.
Those are just two of the impacts of Governor Jerry Brown’s Prison Realignment plan (A.B. 109) on San Bernardino County that will be the subject of a special study session by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 16. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. in the Covington Chambers of the County Government Center, located at 385 North Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino.
REALIGNMENT PLAN
Sheriff John McMahon (Photo by Michael P. Neufeld)
Since A.B. 109 was implemented, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon has been forced to early-release some jail inmates due to overcrowding.
“It’s a big challenge,” McMahon stated because the plan shifts responsibilities for the supervision of paroled prisoners to local jurisdictions rather than the state for non-violebnt and non sex-related offenses.
The new sheriff — who made prison realignment one of his top priorities following his appointment late last year — indicates his department is looking at ways to keep criminals out of jail and return them to productive life.
“It’s the best of the worst options,” is how Chief Probation Officer Michelle Scray described A.B. 109. Her department is utilizing existing programs to help those parolees released from state prisons from returning to jail.
Brown’s plan requires counties to manage non-serious, non-sexual, non-violent offenders in their jails, probation departments and courts.
“When we sentence people like that,” District Attorney Michael Ramos has stated, “they go into the front door of the jail – somebody’s got to come out the back door.” And that takes place because of jail overcrowding in San Bernardino County. (177)
