If You Dump Thousands Of Felony Prisoners Into County Jails That Are Not Designed, Staffed Or Equipped To Handle Them It Causes Problems
by Bob Walsh
It used to be simple. If you were awaiting trial, or sentenced as a misdemeanant, you did your time in the county slammer. Once you were sentenced for a felony you went to the state prison.
Then along came REALIGNMENT. This was one of Jerry Brown's pet social engineering projects. Over seven years it has moved tens of thousands of felony prisoners into county jails, where theoretically they could / would be closer to rehabilitative services, closer to their families and could be treated in a more warm-and-fuzzy fashion thereby reserving state prisons for the "real" bad guys. Theoretically the counties receive adequate funding to achieve these goals. Theoretically.
Now Governor Newsom is unhappy that the state does not have more oversight and control over the local jails, which are run by local elected sheriffs and not by state appointed bureaucrats. He wants to "fix" that.
Since REALIGNMENT came along in-custody deaths have risen drastically, including inmate on inmate homicides. (Gee, who would ever have guessed that would happen?) The state has found that they can not force counties to build updated facilities. (Gee, who could have ever forseen that?)
Fresno County is often cited is these issues. Since realignment 47 prisoners have gone toes up for one reason or another in the Fresno jail. That is twice the number for the previous seven years. Sheriff Margaret Mims (who is actually a very solid cop) has pointed out that jails will continue to be dangerous places as long as they keep locking up dangerous people.
The state democrat-socialists have made one attempt to ram a mandatory oversight bill thru that would create an oversight group with subpoena power. It rolled over and died after strong opposition from the sheriffs.
No comments:
Post a Comment