Although the state transferred a variety of services to local governments last month, the transition wasn’t seamless as the Daily News reported. Los Angeles, its departments, and its agents were unable to fulfill all of the obligations that had previously belonged to the state.
Part of the problem came from the structuring of AB109 itself, which didn’t specifically enumerate the powers to the counties that would be necessary to fully supervise parolees. For instance, secondary legislation was required to give Sheriff’s deputies the authority to hold no-show parolees. Other problems arose from staffing levels themselves. In Los Angeles, the Probation department hoped to hire more than 80 employees to help oversee the new parolees. However, late action taken by the Board of Supervisors only authorized 55 positions, many of which won’t complete training before next year.
However, despite some hiccups, the jail still has some beds available and hasn’t been overwhelmed by the new inmates.
From the Daily News:
The first month of Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison realignment plan has been problematic in Los Angeles County, where understaffing forced probation officers to double their caseloads and sheriff’s deputies were not given authority to arrest no-show parolees until just a few days ago.
The county also had to scramble for information about incoming parolees because the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was slow releasing inmate details.
However, realignment has not yet caused county jails to run out of room.
Read the full article here.