Keep Bailing

Two Orange County bail bonds agents have been arrested and charged with paying inmates to solicit potential clients.

California law prohibits bondsmen from having an arrangement with a detainee in which the detainee would notify them of arrests, prohibits unlicensed persons from soliciting and negotiating bail, and disallows compensation or commissions of any kind to be paid to a non-licensed person for bail transactions.  Referring attorneys to inmates and/or arrestees is also prohibited by law.

James Morris Jr. has been charged with three Read more »

The need for jail expansion and improvements in many of California’s counties has led the state to offer $602 million in funds for just that purpose. Only eleven counties were chosen to receive a portion of that sum.

Because of the new “realignment plan,” many jails throughout the state are dealing with severe overcrowding. The money will help some of these facilities to make updates and expansions in order to improve conditions and allow for more beds.

Three of the counties that applied – Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles – each received $100 million. Stanislaus County received $80 million; Santa Barbara and Tulare each were granted $60 million. Smaller amounts will be given to the other five counties. Kings and Shasta Counties will each get $33 million; Imperial County $23.626 million; Sutter County $10.255 million; and Madera County $3 million.

Each county has its own needs which can be seen to with these funds, such as adding beds or changing from dorm-style cells to individual cells.

The funding was Read more »

Reportedly, the a new location for the old San Francisco Hall of Justice is being considered by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department as the future location of the new jail.

Right now, 1,100 prisoners of the SFSD are being housed in San Bruno and another 464 inmates are housed one Seventh Street. Within the San Francisco jail system, the San Bruno location only has a capacity limit of 900 prisoners, according to spokeswoman Susan Fahey.

The old Hall of Justice is not likely to come through a major earthquake, and so city officials are looking around for a new site to place a new facility. In the meantime, should the worst happen, there is a plan to move the prisoners elsewhere.

The current plan is to buy Read more »

After months of renovation and repair, the Burbank Jail has finally reopened.  The new-and-improved facility has the capacity to hold up to 70 inmates.

During construction, which began in April, the Burbank have been transporting arrestees to the Glendale Jail for booking.   Burbank Police Lt. John Dilibert told the Burbank Leader that this added “at least another 45 minutes to the process”.

Now that the jail is open, he said, it will not only save Read more »

In spite of the fact that the Seal Beach Jail will possibly cost the city nearly $144,000, officials have decided to keep it open. The budget for the jail during the 2011-12 fiscal year is $689,100 and it is expected that the expenditures will go over that amount.

The city council voted unanimously to keep the jail open during a meeting Monday. Councilwoman Ellery Deaton said, “Crime costs the city.”

By keeping the Seal Beach Jail open, the city is saving money because officers won’t have to drive to Orange County Jail in Santa Ana. That would use too much of the officers’ time and cost the city an extra $197,753.

Almost $100,000 had to be invested in the facility after Read more »

A possible case of mumps has led to the partial quarantine of some inmates in the Maguire Detention Facility, the San Mateo County jail, when one of them became ill on Tuesday, according to a county health official. On Tuesday morning, one inmate went to the doctor with flu-like symptoms. The doctor said that there was a chance it was mumps and collected a specimen for testing by state health officials.

Robyn Thaw, spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Health System said, “We are not reporting this as an outbreak or even a confirmed case of mumps a this time.”

While the results are pending, some of the third-floor inmates in the Maguire Correctional Facility will Read more »

The City of Richmond has broken ground on the new $134.6 million jail facility, which will replace the old facility that has been in use since it opened in the 1960s. The plans were approved in December by the Virginia Board of Corrections. The new facility is rated to house 1,032 inmates and is scheduled to open its doors in 2014. It is being constructed next to the existing Richmond jail.

The current jail is only rated to house 880 inmates, but that number has been stretched between 1,300 and 1,500 inmates total, at times. This has caused some concern that the new jail will reach capacity quickly. Mayor Dwight C. Jones has promised, however, that the new facility is Read more »

Tuolumne County submitted an application, along with seven others, in order to receive funding from the state for a new jail complex. County officials were hoping for a maximum $33 million for the project. However, the county ranks lowest in priority among the small counties that applied.

The total cost of the proposed project in Tuolumne County Jail is estimated at $48 million. The other counties that applied for the small county category of funding are Kings, Shasta, Sutter, Madera, Imperial, San Benito and Siskiyou.

There is only $102 million available from the state for county corrections projects and the eight counties requested a total of Read more »

Santa Clara County jail has over 1,000 empty inmate beds but officials are still hoping to receive state funds for an overhaul and expansion of the jail system. The estimated cost of the expansion is $104 million, not including the millions in operating costs each year.

Due to the new California realignment plan, counties all across the state are taking a closer look at their jail facilities. Many of them, like Los Angeles County, are already facing severe overcrowding in the jails. While Santa Clara County does not have an overwhelming influx of inmates, they have other issues.

Jails in Santa Clara are not built to hold inmates for extended periods of time. Cells may have wooden Read more »

California’s prison realignment is continuing to cause waves throughout the state.  Most recently, it’s been reported that low-level offenders who previously helped clear brush and cut fire lines, will no longer be able to serve in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Conservation Camp Program after they’re transferred from state to county jails.

The primary mission of the Conservation Camp program is to provide agencies with an able-bodied, trained work force for fire suppression and other emergencies such as floods and earthquakes.

According to statistics provided by the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in an average year, Conservation Camp Program inmates provide approximately three million person hours in firefighting and other emergencies and save California taxpayers more than $80 million annually, on average.

The challenge lies in that many county jails, such as Los Angeles jails and San Diego jails, are releasing Read more »