Will California's jail reform threaten public safety?

Will California's jail reform threaten public safety?

California will start a massive "realignment" plan to fix its overcrowded prison systems amid worries it might threaten public safety.

Under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, California will begin implementing what it calls a "public safety realignment" plan Sunday to reduce its total prison population of 156,000 by an estimated 37,000.

Under the plan, criminals convicted of non-serious, non-violent or non-sex-related felonies will be sent to county jails instead of state prisons.

Additionally, "non-non-non" offenders released from prison or jail will be placed under the supervision of local probation officers rather than state parole agents.

State Governor Jerry Brown said on Thursday that prison realignment was necessary to address overcrowding and "fix a prison system that has been profoundly dysfunctional for decades."

However, critics fear the budget burden on counties of handling the transferred offenders will force them to release some inmates early, thus threatening public safety.

State senator Sharon Runner called the plan dangerous, saying "public safety will be increasingly compromised."

"Local government will be overwhelmed as more and more convicted criminals are dumped into counties and the promise of new revenue from voter-approved taxes fails to come to fruition," she said.

Los Angeles County, the largest county in the United States, will receive about 8,000 new criminals a year in a county jail that can only house about 4,600 prisoners.

Steve Cooley, the county's district attorney, worried that, without the capacity to house all the new arrivals, authorities would be forced to release more offenders before their sentences were up, threatening to spoil the work the county has done to reduce crime levels to historic lows.

He said, despite being labeled as "non-non-nons," the criminals to be reassigned to county jails included those convicted of serious offenses: possession of assault weapons, drug trafficking and large-scale identity theft and insurance fraud.

Law enforcement officers worried that before long, nearly everyone in county jail would be eligible to get out after serving half their sentence if they behave well. Parolees who comply with the conditions of their release can also earn their freedom sooner -- in six months, rather than a year.

They were also concerned about whether California's declining crime rate would shoot up as the state essentially steers its limited resources toward locking up serious offenders.

There could be a surge in property crimes such as shoplifting, burglary and ID theft, law enforcement officers said.

Leaders of the California Police Chiefs Association have already met Brown to request additional funds for an increased police presence to curb the possible crime wave.

Meanwhile, supporters of the plan said there was no need to worry.

"I don't think this will cause a public safety disaster at all," said Jeanne Woodford, acting head of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The public seemed to be supportive of the plan. A recent poll by the Los Angeles Times and University of Southern California showed that 80 percent of the respondents backed realignment and nearly 70 percent even favored the early release of some low-level, non-violent offenders.

Editor: Yamei Wang

English.news.cn   2011-10-01 16:59:49 FeedbackPrintRSS
by George Bao

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 (Xinhua)