Blog note: this article references a 2013 Yolo
County Grand Jury report.
SACRAMENTO >> California was set to
award $500 million on Thursday to 15 counties to pay for new classrooms, mental
health facilities and other projects intended to help rehabilitate prisoners.
Some $30 million of that money is coming to
Yolo County to help in upgrading the Leinberger Memorial Center, which was
built in 1991. Sheriff Ed Prieto said the money will help in doing some
much-needed rehabilitation of the facility that houses low-risk inmates.
The Leinberger Center and Monroe Detention Center
both came in for light criticism in a 2013 Yolo County Grand Jury report.
That report found both facilities were run-down,
but that county staff were doing a good job of keeping them in shape.
The Monroe Detention Center was constructed in
1988 and can accommodate as many as 455 inmates.
The county had been hopeful as long ago as
2013 that it would receive between $28 million and $32 million for a three-year
renovation process of the facilities.
State lawmakers approved the money before
voters lowered penalties last year for some drug and property crimes, a move
that quickly reduced the state’s overall jail population by 9,000 inmates at
least in the short term.
More than three dozen opponents attended the
Board of State and Community Corrections meeting to object to spending so much
money on jails amid a national movement to reduce mass incarceration.
However, counties need the money to provide
the kind of rehabilitation programs that voters sought when they approved
Proposition 47, including those dealing with mental illness, substance abuse,
jobs and education, said Cory Salzillo, a spokesman for the California State Sheriffs’
Association.
Some of the projects are designed to create
space for long-term felons who filtered down to jails after California began
excluding less-serious offenders from state prisons four years ago under
criminal justice realignment, he said.
“You’re holding folks for longer periods of
time and there’s an expectation that you provide services and meet needs that
weren’t really part of the discussion before,” Salzillo said. “They have to
have the buildings to provide the treatment to make realignment work.”
Californians United for a Responsible Budget,
a statewide coalition of more than 70 organizations opposed to prison and jail
expansion, want the counties to concentrate on jail alternatives such as
treatment programs and releasing more inmates awaiting trial, said Lizzie
Buchen, a coordinator with the coalition.
Sheriffs are “twisting ... and perverting”
voters’ interest in providing treatment for inmates as justification for
expanding the system, she said at a protest before the meeting began.
Most counties are seeking the funds to create
more classrooms and treatment space, as lawmakers intended when they approved
the money, rather than to increase the number of jail cells as opponents had
feared, said Steven Meinrath, an advocate with the ACLU of California’s Center
for Advocacy and Policy.
But he said he is worried that jails are more
frequently being asked to care for mentally ill offenders who could be better
served in outside treatment programs. Some projects include video visitation
facilities that he said could be used instead of allowing personal visits with
inmates.
Salzillo said the reality is that jails house
mentally ill offenders and need space for counseling. Video visits can deter
smuggling of contraband while being more convenient for families who live far
away, her said.
Meinrath said the proposals are generally
vague on how counties will pay for operating and staffing new facilities that
are built,
“What that means is there may be a lot of
classrooms without teachers. We don’t know,” Meinrath said.
Salzillo said
details will emerge as the projects progress.
November 12, 2015
Daily
Democrat
By Don Thompson
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