Prison to Jail Realignment Takes Effect in Riverside County

A executive committee will be formed to tackle the mandated statewide shift of prison terms to jail terms for those convicted of nonviolent, nonsexual and nonserious crimes, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department announced.

California Penal Code 1230--brought about by Assembly Bill 109, which went into effect Oct. 1--requires that each county form a Community Correction Partnership. The CCP will develop will develop and recommend to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors an implementation plan for the 2011 Public Safety Realignment.

When Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 109, at least $6.7 billion was set aside for the counties to fund Public Safety Realignment in 2011-2012. Of that, Riverside County has been allotted $21.4 million.

An executive committee from the CCP members will be appointed by the Board of Supervisors and be compromised of the the county's chief probation officer, a chief of police from an incorporated city within the county, the sheriff, the district attorney, the public defender, a presiding judge of the Superior Court (or his/her designee), and a representative from the County Department of Social Services, Mental Health or Alcohol and Substance Abuse Programs.

The money is to be divided amongst the public safety components.

In the time since the realignment took effect Oct. 1, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has received several inmates who have fallen into the nonviolent, nonsexual and nonserious categories, said Chief Deputy Jerry Gutierrez in a news release.

One inmate was sentenced to a total of 14 years and four months county time, another was sentenced to nine years, another to six years and three others to five years each, Gutierrez said.

"These are just six of the 27 new Riverside County commitments who have been sentenced to more than one year of county time this first week," Gutierrez said.

"Other California sheriff’s departments have just received inmates for court-ordered lengthy sentences of up to 21 years in their county jails during this first week of October."

The new law also changed the length of time served in county facilities for those sentenced after Oct. 1. Penal Code 1170 allows for imprisonment in county jails up to three years, as well as allows for the punishment to be the same as the underlying offense.

"This means a person with multiple convictions and enhancements running consecutively would serve the entire sentence inside a county facility," Gutierrez said.

"Under this law, there is no limit to the length of time a court may sentence a person to county jail. The only restrictions on eligibility for county jail commitment are based on the offense or the offender’s record."

Gutierrez clarified that under AB 109, no inmates currently in state prison will be transferred to county jails or released early. All felons already sent to state prison will continue to serve their entire sentence in state prison. All felons convicted of current or prior serious or violent offenses, sex offenses and sex offenses against children will also continue to serve their sentence state prison. 

"Additionally, there are nearly 60 additional crimes that are not defined in the Penal Code as serious or violent offenses but, at the request of law enforcement, were added as offenses that would be served in state prison rather than in local custody," Gutierrez said.