September
9, 2014
Valley
News
RIVERSIDE - The Board of
Supervisors signed off today on the Riverside County Sheriff's and Probation
departments' generally favorable responses to a grand jury report identifying
how to improve the county's public safety apparatus.
In a 5-0 vote without comment,
the board received and filed the agencies' answers to findings by the county's
19-member civil grand jury that focused on Assembly Bill 109, the 2011 Public
Safety Realignment Act, which increased pressures on local authorities.
The grand jury expressed
concern that the cities of Lake Elsinore and Perris, both of which contract
with the sheriff's department for law enforcement services, had not committed
at least one sworn peace officer to work on one of the county's three
Post-Release Accountability Teams, or PACTs.
The PACTs are tasked with
tracking down and arresting parolees out of compliance with the terms of their
release from incarceration.
According to the sheriff's
response to the grand jury's June report, Lake Elsinore and Perris are welcome
to assign a deputy to one of the PACTs, but it's a decision the cities will
have to make on their own, keeping budget constraints in mind.
The grand jury also criticized
the county for not maintaining an "updated and centralized database"
for keeping track of who's being released from one of the county's five
detention facilities, suggesting the information deficit posed a safety risk.
According to probation
officials, the agency distributes a "warrant list" of wanted
offenders and issues a monthly list of individuals who have been turned out of
prison on "post-release community supervision." There is even more
recent data available via the county's web-based Law Enforcement Portal,
officials said.
The department acknowledged the
need for a regular listing of individuals on "mandatory supervision,"
or those who are on probation or parole and have been jailed for offenses that
do not warrant a return to prison. The agency said work is underway to make
that a regular practice.
Under AB 109, offenders
convicted of a "non-serious, non-violent" and non-sexually oriented
crime must serve their time in a county jail, not prison. Officials have
underscored the immense burden this has placed on the local correctional
system.
According to sheriff's figures,
nearly 25,000 inmates were released from the county's jails between Jan. 1,
2012 and this past August as a result of overcrowding before they completed
their sentences or had their cases adjudicated.
The grand jury cited instances
in which inmates are set free without a formal "case plan" being
developed on where they're going to reside and how they're going to support
themselves. On some occasions, probation officers were not even notified of an
inmate's release until two days after it happened, the report stated.
Jurors said probation officers
should be stationed at jails and meet with inmates prior to their release to
confirm where they're going and how theycan be reached when they get there.
According to probation
officials, the department in June asked for county funding to support a
"Transition and Reentry Unit," but it's unclear whether the money
will be available in the current fiscal year.
Jurors also expressed concern
about a lack of uniform radio communication between agencies.
The county's Public Safety
EnterpriseCommunication system, or PSEC, went live in January, boasting digital
broadcasting ability across 95 percent of the county. But not all area cities
have signed on, hampering the ability of one law enforcement agency knowing
whether a neighboring one has arrested a dangerous offender.
The grand jury said the
sheriff's department should take extra pains to get more localities connected
to PSEC.
According to a sheriff's
statement, the department "disagrees that PSEC improvements have proven to
be a material variable in managing the AB 109 challenges."
Officials said the sheriff
"supports" any municipal police department's desire to sign on to the
network, but the communities must decide whether the costs are worth it.
The grand jury said 4,500
prisoners have been placed on supervised release after serving time in a local
jail since AB 109 took effect. About 15 percent of those have ended up homeless,
figures showed. Jurors said the county needs to expand its inventory of
"transitional" and "emergency" housing to keep inmates from
sleeping on the streets.
Probation officials
acknowledged a limited stock of transitional quarters, including halfway houses,
but said every effort is made to get released inmates temporary housing, using
the resources of several county agencies.
According to officials, 47
additional emergency beds were funded in July, most of them in the Coachella
Valley. However, officials noted, that some inmates refuse transitional
quarters even when they're offered because they don't want to live by "the
house rules," while other inmates have been booted out of housing programs
due to drug and alcohol abuse or other deal-breakers.
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