Bringing Inmates To County Jails 'Scares' DA

Riverside County supervisors, without comment, today approved District Attorney Paul Zellerbach's request for $968,000 to cover office expenses arising from "realignment," which shifted responsibility for a number of criminal justice activities from the state to counties.

to read more about realignment, which entails incarcerating many inmates in county jails instead of state prisons.

The allotment will come from a roughly $24 million allocation the state is making to Riverside County agencies and courts in the current fiscal year to mitigate realignment-related costs.

The county's general fund will not be drawn down.

According to the District Attorney's Office, the $968,000 will cover the salaries of three senior prosecutors, one investigator, an investigative technician, a paralegal and three "legal support assistants" devoted full- time to cases stemming from realignment.

The funding amount was determined by the Community Corrections Partnership executive committee, comprised of Zellerbach, Chief Probation Officer Alan Crogan, Sheriff Stan Sniff, Public Defender Gary Windom, Department of Mental Health Director Jerry Wengerd, Presiding Judge Sherrill Ellsworth and Desert Hot Springs police Chief Pat Williams.

Zellerbach has said the additional burdens placed on the county's resources because of realignment "scare" him. The consensus among committee members is that any future state funding will be inadequate.

Realignment was implemented under Assembly Bill 109, passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor in April. Under the measure, so- called "non's" -- individuals convicted of crimes that fall into the non- violent, non-serious, non-sexually oriented category and whose principal offense results in a sentence of three years or less -- are to be incarcerated in county jail to serve their time.     

However, according to sheriff's officials, AB 109's amendments to the penal code did not differentiate between a principal offense and enhancements that add to the defendant's sentence. The result: felons can be sentenced to five, 10, 20 or more years in county jail, as long as their punishment is for the same "underlying offense."

The law, which went into effect Oct. 1, also requires counties to take over parole supervision of all "non's" -- formerly a state obligation -- and prosecute them for parole violations.