The words “public safety realignment” sound benign, but realignment should have everyone concerned. Otherwise known as ‘prison realignment’, this legislation passed by the California Legislature and signed into law by Governor Brown in 2011, has fundamentally changed California’s criminal justice system and continues to create problems throughout the state- and Riverside County is no exception. This law has diverted thousands of so-called “low-level” criminal offenders to local jails that would have once gone to or stayed in state prison. Because County jails are now overcrowded, Sheriffs have little choice but to release thousands of inmates early, some of whom have gone on to commit other crimes.
Now we are finding that committing crimes after release is not the only problem with realignment. Assaults on staff within the walls of the Riverside County’s five jails have jumped dramatically, and officials are now having to find the ways and means to increase security. The Press Enterprise recently reported from statistics gathered from the Sheriff’s Department that assaults on jail staff rose from 39 in 2011 to 70 in 2012. At the Robert Presley Detention Center in downtown Riverside, there was more than a 3-fold increase in felony batteries on staff from 8 in 2011 to 28 in 2012.
My District staff has also received reports from businesses around the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta of an increase in homelessness and loitering due to late night and early morning release of prisoners. Hundreds of my constituents have signed petitions asking Riverside County to stop releasing inmates around the clock.
Find out what's happening in Lake Elsinore-Wildomarwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The rush to diminish the State Prison population by housing inmates in County facilities which were unprepared to do so, has also created immense financial burdens on all counties and left Riverside County now grappling to fast-track the expansion of the Indio Jail and the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning. While these expansions may be of some help in the future, it certainly will not curb the rising and alarming statistics of crimes inside and outside our county jails.
The most basic job of a government is to protect its citizens and realignment has only put the people of California in more danger. It seems that little regard to public safety was involved in the design of realignment. So now it is time for the Governor to do his job in protecting the citizens of California by stopping criminals from being released early.
