In April – in response to a US Supreme Court order that the California prison system inmate number be reduced to 137.5 percent of design capacity by May 24, 2013 – Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 109 and AB 117, as Lake County News has reported.
The bills create a framework for a correctional realignment plan in which counties will take on increased responsibility for monitoring former prison inmates, according to Steve Buchholz, Lake County’s acting chief probation officer.
In addition, under the auspices of AB 109 some offenders who previously would have served time in state prison now will serve their time in county jails, he explained.
“This law is such a dramatic change from the way things used to be that it’s really a learning process on every level,” Buchholz said.
No inmates currently in state prison will be transferred to county jails or released early, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported that all felons sent to state prison before Oct. 1 will continue to serve their entire sentence in state prison, and that all felons convicted of current or prior serious or violent offenses, sex offenses and sex offenses against children will go to state prison.
The agency said the state also will continue to oversee inmates paroled from life terms, including third-strike offenders, and mentally disordered offenders.
At the request of law enforcement, the legislation Brown signed added nearly 60 additional crimes to those the penal code requires be served in state prison rather than local custody, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
AB 109 also creates a revenue stream from Vehicle License Fees and a portion of state sales tax for counties to implement their realignment. Other legislation, including AB 111 and AB 94, offer additional revenue opportunities, according to corrections officials.
Buchholz said Lake County received $840,000 for realignment programming through next July 1, along with some other smaller pots of money for training. That funding isn’t permanent, and eventually will go away.
Many potential impacts still unknown
Buchholz said Lake County’s new correctional programs resulting from the realignment are set to be up and running by next Monday, Nov. 21.
Between the official beginning of the state realignment program – Oct. 1 – and next July, Buchholz said Lake County is supposed to get a total of 71 individuals who will be on “post-release community supervision.” A few already have been sent to Lake County.
He said those 71 people aren’t the biggest impact; they would have been here anyway, but would have been under different supervision, such as that of state parole officers.
County agencies Buchholz predicted will be impacted besides probation include the sheriff’s office, district attorney, mental health and public health, Alcohol and Other Drug Services, social services and the public defender.
Buchholz said one of the biggest impacts will come in the form of people who would have been sent to prison but now, going forward, will be sent to jail. The length of sentences didn’t change, just where they’re served.
That could have the potential to snowball if the jail fills up, he said, “Because we can no longer legally house them in prison.”
In addition, there will be parolees who no longer serve time for parole violations in prison but in the jail, where Buchholz predicts “a dramatic impact.”
The Corrections Standards Authority lists the Lake County Jail as a “type II” facility, which is defined as one “used for the detention of persons pending arraignment, during trial and upon a sentence of commitment.”
While some inmates are held for several years pending trial, those who have been sentenced normally spend no more than a year in the Lake County Jail. Multiyear sentences have previously been served in state prison.
According to Corrections Standards Authority reports, the Lake County Jail had an average monthly inmate population of 240 in 2010. Recent state reports put the jail’s rated capacity at about 286, although its population has peaked at well over 300 inmates in recent years.
Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the agency anticipates an impact from realignment, but added, “Nobody really knows what the impact’s going to be.”
He said the sheriff’s office is working with the California Corrections Standards Authority to increase the jail’s capacity in preparation for more inmates.
Buchholz also predicted an increase in the caseload for local courts, where some parole violations now will be handled.
Like Buchholz, District Attorney Don Anderson worries about the local impacts of the correctional realignment.
He and his staff are anticipating an increase in crime as parolees reoffend, and those violations will have to be handled locally – not, as previously, at the state level – adding to the district attorney’s already heavy caseload.
With more felons in the county’s jail, Anderson is concerned about more offenses inside the jail, which also will be prosecuted locally.
With more felons in jails, “A lot of the misdemeanor defendants aren’t going to be spending very much time in jail, if at all,” Anderson said.
There is a basis for Anderson’s concerns about recidivism.
Buchholz said a recent count of parolees in Lake County numbered 270. Corrections officials estimate up to 68 percent of those convicts will reoffend during their parole, with resulting sentences to be served in the Lake County Jail.
Buchholz said he worries about public perceptions about the program, particularly, that all sex offenders and serious convicts will go to prison. He said that isn’t true, and guaranteed that some of those offenders will end up in the county jail, he said.
Company to assist in working with probationers, inmates
Lake County has contracted with BI Inc., which will run a day reporting center at 1375 Hoyt Ave. in Lakeport for up to 50 probationers, with a separate satellite office to open in Clearlake, according to the company.
BI Inc. reported that offenders who report to the day reporting center will go through a multiphase program that includes ongoing reporting to the center, intensive treatment and training, and testing for drug and alcohol use. Offenders will participate in classes proven to change criminal thinking.
Failure to comply with with the day reporting center rules and guidelines will result in increased sanctions such as tighter curfews, more frequent visits to the center, additional classes, electronic monitoring or a return to incarceration, the company reported.
BI Inc. also will open a jail employment education program for up to 50 inmates within the Lake County Jail. The program – which has reportedly helped reduce recidivism – is meant to prepare offenders for a productive life after incarceration.
In addition, BI Inc. will operate an electronic monitoring system to help track individuals based on their risks. The devices will range from a GPS tracking system worn by a subject, to a traditional house arrest monitoring system that also is worn, and an ankle bracelet sensor to continuously monitor sobriety.
Offenders enrolled in the electronic monitoring program will have periodic meetings with case managers to monitor progress with vocational, educational, family and other key issues, BI Inc. reported.
Staffing changes coming to probation
In the midst of these changes, the Board of Supervisors took action at its Nov. 8 meeting to direct that a recruitment begin for an assistant probation chief.
The County Administrative Office asked the board to eliminate a vacant deputy probation officer job and immediately begin recruiting a new assistant chief, which the supervisors unanimously approved.
Buchholz, who came out of retirement earlier this year to fill the chief probation officer job – a job he had held for 16 years and retired from several years ago – said he completely supported the proposal.
When he was appointed chief probation officer more than 18 years ago he said that assistant chief position was lost.
“So I have firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to run the department without a clearly defined second in command, and that’s not even considering what’s going on in the department at this time, so I think it makes a lot of sense and I hope the board approves it,” he told the supervisors.
County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said at the meeting that the county’s leadership had been having regular meetings regarding the probation department’s organization.
With the permanent chief, Dan Hurst, absent, and with Buchholz’s time limited due to his retirement status, “We feel it is very important that we have an assistant chief on board and we bring one on board as soon as possible,” said Cox.
Realignment made the recruitment even more critical, said Cox, because probation “is at the center of that.”
Cox said he was grateful to Buchholz for agreeing to come back and assist the county in the transition. “I honestly don’t know what we would have done the last few months without him.”
Buchholz told Lake County News that he will be in the office almost every day between now and January, after which he will start spreading his time out more until he meets the maximum 960 hours he’s limited to working as a retiree.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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