Keep Bailing

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that California had to reduce the number of inmates that were overcrowding the prison system by 30,000. State officials have been given the task of mapping out a plan that will make this happen within two years. The plan they are forming will rely mainly on the 58 counties throughout the state to supervise thousands of inmates. County leaders would like to know who is supposed to be paying for this plan.

The state has been considering the possibility of counties housing low-level offenders in county jails and supervise more once they’ve been released. In 2007, a three-judge panel convened to discuss the possibility of putting a cap on the state’s prison population. Soon, that cap is going to be a reality which has Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione concerned.

“We have a lot of friends, including my son who’s a law enforcement officer, and you know, when you release those individuals back into the communities, you want to have them properly supervised,” Tavaglione said.

The Governor’s “realignment plan” will move thousands of low-level offenders to local jails and low-level parolees to county probation offices. The goal of this plan is to reduce the prison population by 40,000 inmates over the course of four years. The plan will be presented to the court next week and is supported by the California State Association for Counties, headed up by Tavaglione.

This plan is also backed by the Chief Probation Officers of California. Executive Director Karen Pank said, “We’re trying to build the plane as its flying. There’s a little bit of that going on, even though I think a lot of us have been talking about this for many years.“