The Fresno Chief of Police is looking for new ways to house and hold criminals. As it is, the county facility is releasing criminals early, and some of them are returning to a life of crime as soon as they hit the streets.
Between 2009 and 2011, the Fresno Bee reported 30,600 inmates were released from jail early. In certain cases, early release resulted in disastrous outcomes. One street vendor was robbed a month after a gang members 12th arrest. He then shot a good Samaritan who came to the aid of the vendor. So Chief Jerry Dyer is looking beyond county borders.
One idea would be to ship inmates to the Madera County jail. It has available cells and could house criminals, instead of releasing them early. However, state law currently does not permit that scheme. One assemblyman, however, is pushing a bill that would allow the city to pursue the $150,000 pilot program.
From the Fresno Bee:
We don’t blame Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer for looking to other counties to house suspects that his officers arrest. There isn’t room in the Fresno County Jail, which doesn’t have the funding to open empty jail floors. It’s so bad that more than 30,600 inmates were released from jail early due to overcrowding between 2009 and 2011.
Many of these inmates have gone on to commit other crimes while they are out on early release. Here’s just a sampling that we gathered from police reports:
A gang member who was released early shot at a group of people attending a candlelight vigil in front of the Walmart on East Kings Canyon Boulevard in April 2011. A man in the group was wounded. The gang member had been arrested and released nine times in 12 months.
Read the full article here.