One of the challenges that has been facing county jails is long-term inmates. Generally speaking, jails are designed for shorter-term sentences of a year, but under realignment more than 1,100 inmates are now serving long sentences in county facilities. The Governor’s May Revise has proposed a reform to realignment that would swap inmates.
The plan would call for the state to send counties inmates at the end of their sentences and preparing for release. Counties would then send the state inmates who had served at least 3 years of their long-term sentences. The swap wouldn’t impact the overall populations in either county or state facilities, and therefore wouldn’t run afoul the federal court’s mandate on populations. It would, however, allow facilities to serve populations that they were originally designed to accommodate.
Describing the swap as a “fix,” Governor Brown said that realignment is not a perfect surgery but can be improved. He brushed aside calls for its partial or total repeal.
Read the full article at the Press Enterprise.