State realignment under way

More non-violent offenders, non-serious offenders, non-registerable sex offenders and state parolees are being sent to Tulare County to help California gain control of its bulging state-prison population.

Signed into law in April by Gov. Jerry Brown, Assembly Bill 109, which ordered a sharp reduction in the state-prison population to reduce overcrowding and address medical inadequacies, went into effect Oct. 1.

Since then, 20 non-violent, non-serious and/or non-registerable sex offenders, all of whom would have gone to state prisons under traditional sentencing standards, have instead been sent to Tulare County facilities, Sheriff’s Department Capt. Robin Skiles said Wednesday.

Their sentences range from 16 months to four years but can be reduced if enough good time-work time is logged, he said.

Skiles said no challenges have been encountered thus far but noted the realignment effort is still in its infancy.

“It’s still really early to gauge what kind of impact it will be,” he said.

By the end of fiscal year 2012-13, Skiles said he expects the adult pretrial facility, which currently has 234 beds available, to be fully functional. The county is home to four jails, a day-reporting center and about 1,600 inmates, he said.

The California Department of Corrections estimates Tulare County facilities will have an average daily population of 520 non-violent, non-serious and/or non-registerable sex offenders at full implementation.

The Sheriff’s Department received $2.86 million, which will add 52 full-time positions, from the state to assist with the shift.

Skiles said he believes the governor’s plan can work as long as the county continues to receive sufficient funding.

“As long as there’s adequate funding, we’re very optimistic that this is going to work,” he said.

Meanwhile, since Oct. 1, 27 inmates from state prisons who have been released on parole have been sent to the county to report to county probation officers instead of state parole agents, Christie Myer, the county Probation Department’s assistant chief probation officer, said Wednesday.

This fiscal year, she said she expects a minimum of 408 Post-Release Community Supervision (PRCS) offenders to be released to the county. For fiscal year 2012-13, Myer said she anticipates another 500-plus PRCS offenders to be sent to the county.

“We are very hopeful for positive outcomes and are committed to providing supervision services that address public safety and offender needs,” Myer said.

According to Myer, since January 2010, an average of 200 PRCS offenders per month have been in the county without any supervision services after being released from state prison on non-revocable parole.

“Local supervision is a far better alternative to none,” she said.

The Probation Department received $2.79 million, which will add 27 positions and the AB 109 Adult Supervision Unit, from the state to help with the realignment effort.

Myer was pleased to say the county’s impacted agencies have worked very well together to help carry out the governor’s plan.

“It is early in the process,” she said. “We will be carefully monitoring this population over the next nine months and analyze the impact they have on our communities, our local law enforcement, our jail facilities and our judicial system.”

Contact Alex K.W. Schultz at 784-5000, Ext. 1050 or aschultz@portervillerecorder.com.