Keep Bailing

Last October, only a few California Counties were formally invited to apply for up to $100 million in state funding. San Mateo County was not one of them, but county officials are still optimistic about their chances to qualify for the money.

Compared to other competing counties, San Mateo was considered low in the priority for state funding. The county was ranked ninth in the large county population category, falling behind the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Orange, Kern, Sacramento, Santa Clara and Fresno.

The main deciding factor in the ranking of the counties was how many inmates each county sends to state corrections centers each year. For Los Angeles County, that number is near 19,000 inmates. In San Bernardino, approximately 5,800 inmates are transferred to state facilities. San Mateo County only sends about 560 inmates annually.

County officials are hopeful that, if one of the other counties drops out of contention, San Mateo County will have a good chance of securing funding. The site for the new jail has already been purchased and planning is currently underway. The estimated total building cost for the new facility is $165 million. State money could cover more than half of that amount, reducing the amount of debt San Mateo County will face.

Regardless of whether or not San Mateo receives state funds, the plans to build a new jail will move forward. Overcrowding has continued to plague the San Mateo County corrections system, with Read more »

The Los Angeles Times reported that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has announced that the Chowchilla women’s jail in Madera County will be converted to house low-and-medium level male inmates, instead.

The CDCR said the conversion will help to alleviate the adult male inmate overcrowding problem and avoid staff layoffs at the institution.

The conversion is scheduled to happen in three phases and is expected to be complete by July 2013.  The facility currently houses 3,171 female inmates.  The level of male inmates and staff is expected to be similar once the project is complete. The conversion at Chowchilla will allow the CDCR to create additional space for male inmates by using an existing facility while maintaining its workforce.

The CDCR said that with the implementation of the California jail realignment that the department expects Read more »

It has been barely 60 days since California began shifting prisoners from state to county jails. A number of counties have already begun feeling the pinch of increase capacity, wondering how long it will take before what remaining beds they have are filled.

The Mercury News has reported that state corrections officials are saying that although they are receiving more prisoners than initially expected that it’s still too soon to panic.

Los Angeles and Riverside County jails initially believed they could reach capacity by the close of 2011.  Spokespeople from both counties have since delayed the timeline.  Still, LA County Sheriffs officials are considering releasing less-serious offenders early with the stipulation that they continue to be monitored with GPS-ankle bracelets.

Orange County Jail officials have said that “more than 60 detainees had to sleep on the jail floor until beds could be made available”.    Fresno County Jail has recently said they will no longer detain parole violators for minor infractions. Those who have been caught committing new crimes could be readmitted.

Reportedly judges are no longer permitted to send Read more »

The Fresno Bee last week reported that the Fresno County Sheriff Department parole violators will no longer be held at the Fresno County Jail.  The decision, the Sheriff’s Office said, is due to a lack of room based on recent overcrowding and the need to keep open beds reserved for more dangerous inmates.

Parolees are now considered to be a lesser threat and although those violating the terms of their release by doing things such as consuming alcohol will not be sent back to jail, those who commit new crimes while out on parole may “qualify for jail time depending on their on their offense.”

Fresno joins a growing-number of counties who are scrambling to deal with fast-growing inmate populations under the state’s prisoner realignment program.  On Nov. 8, 139 state parolees were being held at the jail, which was more than all the inmates the county was expecting to hold at this stage of realignment.

Parolees had previously been remanded to state prison if they violated the terms of their release.  State parole officials have since said Read more »

I didn’t need to see the morning news to find out that the LAPD cleared out the Los Angeles Occupy site. Instead, we were answering calls from family looking to post bail bonds for the protesters.

Apparently, more than 200 Occupy Los Angeles protestors were arrested early this morning in what the Los Angeles Police Department calls a “peaceful sweep”. LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck addressed the media shortly after the disbandment of the camp, saying that the arrests were “mainly peaceful”.

Arrestees were loaded onto buses and taken to the LAPD Metro Jail to be booked and processed.  Bail for those that called us was set at $5,000. The jailer at the downtown LA Metropolitan Center Jail told us that protestors would not be released on their own recognizance or “cited out” as protesters usually are. We are somewhat skeptical of that given the already overcrowded Los Angeles jail systems. However, each individual will certainly be screened for warrants on a nation-wide basis. So with so many individuals to book in, any release, be it on bail or otherwise will be hours away.

According to  the Los Angeles Times, several hundred police officers arrived at the camp just after midnight and surrounded the encampment and declared it to be an “unlawful assembly”. Occupiers were told Read more »

Over Capacity

Our Inside California Jails Series Continues….

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that California state prisons were too overcrowded is already beginning to impact counties throughout the state.  Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has already begun sounding alarms, saying that Los Angeles jails could reach their capacity by the end of 2011.

An additional 8,000 inmates will be realigned to Los Angeles jails next year, officials said, putting the city between a rock and a hard place.  A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s department has said that approximately 70% of the inmate population consists of defendants who are awaiting trial.   Due to severe overcrowding, they said, that number may need to be reduced to around 50%.

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds continues with our tenth series in our California jails: Inside the Los Angeles County Jails.

Here, we’ll fill you in on:

• Legislative Changes That Are Impacting LA County Jails
• Jail Overcrowding
• Possible Early Release Read more »

The California Department of Corrections (DOC) has green-lighted 25 counties to apply for Phase II Jail Construction funding, according to a report by KEYT.  The following California county jails have received invitations to apply: Los Angeles, Riverside, Toulumne, Siskiyou, San Benito, Orange, Read more »

California state assemblyman Brian Jones (R-Santee) believes that the state’s prison overpopulation problem can be solved by relocating inmates to facilities south of the border.  If the proposal is successful, that means prisoners from throughout the state, including those being held at the Las Colinas Jail for Women, could potentially be relocated.

The crux of the argument, reports Fox 5 San Diego, lies in the 27,000+ illegal immigrant inmates being detained in California prisons.  Jones believes a more cost-effective solution would be to construct facilities in Mexico and house them there, he said.

According to a recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California, the state’s prisons are operating at 175% of Read more »

The Fresno County Jail is “filling up fast” according to an Oct. 12 report by ABC30. Because of this, say local elected officials, concerns that with the newly mandated transfer of prisoners out of state facilities and into county jails, compounded by concerns of overcrowding, are urgent.

Fresno County law enforcement officers have indicated that the county jail could reach its peak capacity in “less than two weeks,” although Rick Hill, who works at the county sheriff’s department believes “we will probably get overcrowded in three or four days.”

Because of this, Hill furthered, the number of pre-trial inmates who might be eligible for early release on their own recognizance, may increase. One Fresno County bail bondsman indicated that allowing inmates to be released without them needing to make bail could lead to an increased Read more »

Effective October 1, California state prisons must decrease the inmate population and will be sending felons to be housed at county jails. In order to get the Fresno County Jail ready for its growing population, a new floor is being reopened and 432 beds are being brought in.

But with local criminals still overflowing the jail, it won’t be long before the extra space is also filled. The city will be forced to release inmates early in order to prevent severe overcrowding.

Inmates from prisons will not be transferred right away to the county facility. Instead, judges will begin sentencing lower-level felons to serve their time in county jails. County probation officers will start supervising low-level felons upon their release from prison. This will bring the number of criminals being handled in Fresno County to about 2,000.

It is feared by many law enforcement leaders that Read more »