Already facing violence and smuggling, officials now wait to see results of Prop. 47
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office
continues to grapple with violence and smuggling at the County Jail, due mainly
to the changing inmate population since state prison realignment in 2011,
according to a civil grand jury report.
But it is too soon to realize the effects of
last year’s successful Proposition 47 ballot initiative that reclassified many
non-violent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, the grand
jury found.
Prison realignment, or Assembly Bill 109,
signed by the governor in 2011, requires courts to send people convicted of
low-level, non-violent and non-sexual crimes to county jails to serve their
sentences in an effort to reduce the state’s overcrowded prisons.
The San Luis Obispo County Jail’s inmate
population has increased by 57 percent between 2010 and 2014, the report reads,
and it is estimated that 30-35 percent of jail inmates at any time are AB 109
inmates.
The daily average inmate population was 701
at the end of September 2014, according to the Board of State and Community
Corrections, which documents jail populations quarterly.
The report said that overcrowding has also
undermined rehabilitation programs and opportunities for physical exercise.
Though the report said the jail was
well-managed and maintained, it noted that “as more inmates serve their
sentences locally in lieu of state prison, there is limited physical space and
an increase in assaults, violence and gang politics.”
The Sheriff’s Office reported little change
in the amount of contraband smuggled into the jail, despite a recently acquired
K-9 unit and electronic body scanner to screen inmates. The Sheriff's Office
said smuggling methods have become more sophisticated, according to the report.
“Many of the AB 109 inmates have done
previous time in the state prison system and are much more educated in these
(smuggling) tactics compared to non-AB 109 jail inmates,” the report stated.
The grand jury said that AB 109 inmates also
serve longer jail terms, creating more incentive to acquire drugs.
Jury foreman Larry Herbst said that while
Prop. 47 has already had some effect on the jail, the grand jurors found that
it was too soon to draw conclusions from a law that was seven months old.
The Sheriff’s Office told jurors it would be
two years before it could determine Prop. 47’s local effects.
“There are forces both pushing and pulling,
so to speak,” Herbst said. “But I’d say there’s an expectation that with more
officers citing and releasing there would be a downward (jailpopulation)
trend.”
The report did note, however, that three
local police departments closed holding cells at their respective stations due
to underuse, as people arrested for the newly downgraded crimes are either cited
and released or taken directly to jail.
Jurors also toured Juvenile Hall, currently
undergoing an expansion due for completion later this year, and reported it was
properly staffed, well-maintained and provided effective rehabilitative
programs.
It lastly examined the Sheriff’s Office’s
crime lab, which added 300 square feet due to a recommendation by the 2013-14
grand jury. This jury found that the lab was staffed by two very busy,
full-time forensic technicians required to be on call to report to crime scenes
24 hours a day. One retirement or transfer would have a detrimental impact on
crime investigation throughout the county, the report reads. The jury
recommended the Sheriff’s Office begin now looking into hiring an additional
technician, given that training for the position takes roughly five years.
The report made no recommendations regarding
troubles at the jail.
In response, the Sheriff’s Office said it
agrees with the crime lab recommendation, but a more pressing need is refilling
patrol positions lost during the economic recession.
However, a glaring omission in the report is
the five inmates who have died in custody at the jail or shortly after being
taken to a hospital since January 2014.
Herbst said he could not comment on why the
grand jury did not address the deaths in the report or whether it is currently
investigating them.
June
11, 2015
The
Tribune
By Matt
Fountain
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