Plata: The County Jail Edition?

When people express support for the Realignment, it is because of the general perception that the state did such an abysmal job at housing inmates that counties would clearly do better. But is that really so?

Not according to the Prison Law Office, who has filed a health-care lawsuit in Fresno and contemplating another one in Riverside.

The nonprofit Prison Law Office and others are concerned that California’s realignment of prisons and jails – which has inmates serving time in county jails for crimes that in the past would have landed them in prison – may have simply shifted the state’s prison problems to the 58 counties and their jail systems. They warn there may be more suits to come.


“It’s not that these jails were doing well before; it’s just worse with realignment,” said Don Specter, Prison Law Office director. “In some ways, counties are worse than (state prisons) … and certainly the harm on prisoners who stay there longer is going to be greater.”

And then, of course, there are the counties who are doing a better job–“particularly those that have long made treatment, not prison time, a priority.” The story continues:


Marin County Sheriff Bob Doyle said not many people have been sentenced under realignment in that county, and those who have been have received relatively short, three- or four-year terms.


“The counties with the big problems with realignment, No. 1, already had space issues, and No. 2, have different sentencing practices,” Doyle said.


“We’re a county that since the 1980s has had a low incarceration rate,” he said, adding that Marin County developed programs in the 1990s as alternatives to locking people up. “We see realignment as an opportunity.”


Dr. Joe Goldenson, who directs San Francisco’s Jail Health Services, said the city also hasn’t seen overwhelming numbers of new inmates under realignment because it never sent many felons to state prisons in the first place. And, he said, leaders have consistently invested in jail health care “because they have always recognized the importance of providing care to this population.”

The only thing certain about the realignment is that nothing is certain; the counties’ different approaches will make or break this reform in terms of its impact on mass incarceration.

State Juvenile Program Profile

Photo credit Lea Suzuki for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Juvenile realignment is such a thorny issue these days, with so much talk about direct filing concerns and proper institutions. Here’s one more thing to consider: Some unique state programs, which are costly, but truly make a difference for juvenile state inmates convicted of serious crimes.

These programs are the focus of a story by Marisa Lagos on yesterday’s Chron (only available online as of this afternoon. Lagos visited two of these unique institutions, O.S. Close and N.A. Chaderjan, and brought back stories from the administrators and the wards.
Here’s a description of one of these facilities:
The facility is oriented around Chad’s sprawling central yard, a huge expanse of grass that includes football and soccer fields and an adjoining basketball court. In the early evenings, before dinner and nighttime treatment sessions, the yard fills with youths in matching outfits, playing sports and participating in other recreational activities. 


But during business hours, vocational programs are under way in the squat buildings that are the hallmark of these correctional facilities.


Inside one of those large rooms, various pieces of computer hardware rest in neat piles as five wards – dressed in polo shirts emblazoned with a “Merit Partners” logo – inspect open hard drives.
The youths are employees of the nonprofit Merit Inc., which was founded 14 years ago with the goal of training incarcerated youths in useful job skills. The Stockton facility is a registered Microsoft refurbisher, and the wards that work here are all trained in rebuilding and repairing dated equipment that is donated by corporations.


Unlike most prison jobs, they are paid well – starting at minimum wage, which is $8 an hour in California, and up to $10 an hour. They work up to 40 hours a week, money that goes toward restitution for victims of violent crimes, room and board at the facility, family support if appropriate, and a savings account in the worker’s name that will help them land on their feet when they are released.
The workers also learn “soft skills,” such as how to create a resume, apply for a job and dress for and conduct themselves during an interview.


“I’ve learned a lot – I never thought I’d be learning about fixing computers,” said Terrance Turner, a 21-year-old ward who grew up in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. “And before I was scared to talk to groups of people. Now I am trying to overcome that.”

Would the counties be able to come up with comparable, and less expensive, rehabilitative options for their juvenile population?

Realignment Report by the ACLU of California

A new report by the ACLU of California examines realignment so far, including the allocation of funds to counties. Their executive summary finds four troubling themes:

  • A troubling lack of state monitoring, data collection, outcome measurements and funding incentives to help counties successfully implement realignment.
  • A dramatic increase in spending on county jails—facilitated by billions of dollars in state funding—particularly in those counties that have historically sent more people to state prison for low-level, non-violent offenses.
  • A shockingly high number of people who present no real threat to public safety being held in county jails before having their day in court, incarcerated without trial simply because they cannot afford bail.
  • A promising commitment—though not yet realized—by many counties to adopt alternatives to incarceration and evidence-based practices to reduce recidivism. A few counties are adopting innovative programs and approaches that can serve as models for the rest of the state, but all too often our analysis revealed few, if any, resources allocated for such programs.

The report makes the following recommendations:

  • Data Collection. Mandate standardized data collection and analysis across the 58 counties in order to monitor which policies and programs are working to reduce recidivism and reliance upon incarceration, and base policy and budget decisions on those findings.
  • Funding Formula. Revise the state funding allocation formula to incentivize counties to reduce recidivism and incarceration.
  • Sentencing Reforms. Enact statewide front-end sentencing reforms to help counties implement realignment.
  • Pretrial Detention Reform. Amend statewide pretrial detention laws and implement new local pretrial release policies to keep behind bars only those who truly pose a risk to public safety.
  • Alternatives to Incarceration. Create and fund concrete plans to develop community- based alternatives to detention for both the pretrial and sentenced population.
  • Utilize New Sentencing Options. Encourage local courts to utilize realignment’s new sentencing options that authorize judges to replace all or part of a jail sentence with community sanctions or treatment programs.
  • Stop Jail Expansion. Halt or significantly reduce jail expansion and construction plans, including AB 900 funding and projects.
  • Limit Use of Immigration Detainers. Review the impact of immigration status and immigration detainers on inmates’ detention to prioritize public safety needs.

Juvenile Realignment Delayed

The Senate Budget Sub-Committee has decided to delay their approval for the Governor’s proposal to stop intake of juvenile offenders at the State Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) on January 1, 2013, shift responsibility for the juveniles to local governments, and fund local governments $10 million in 2011-2012 for the planning of the incoming youthful offenders. This is after Budget Sub-Committee staff recommended waiting to move on the Governor’s proposal to realign DJJ to the local governments until the May Revise.

Budget Sub-Committee staff noted “potential hurdles” in implementing the Governor’s proposal including: an increase in direct files; court commitment changes; “sight and sound” barriers for minors housed in adult institutions; and statutory changes, as counties can only house wards until age 21 while DJJ houses wards up to age 25.

Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice Executive Director Dan Macallair and Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program Director David Steinhart spoke about these items on a panel at the hearing. Macallair recommended pushing back the deadline for DJJ closure to 2015-2016 to allow more time for planning. He also recommended Ventura Youth Correctional Facility be closed, and encouraged the Legislature to take advantage of private foundation support. Steinhart proposed more housing options for older and more violent juvenile offenders. He also recommended penalties for counties that have high rates of direct files. Sumayyah Waheed of the Ella Baker Center also testified, noting concerns with the current progress on implementing the stipulations from the Farrell v. Cate case regarding unconstitutional conditions at DJJ facilities, including problems such as guard harassment and “room sweeps.”

BREAKING NEWS: Amicus Brief Submitted in Felon Disenfranchisement Case

“Vote” by Anthony Papa,
http://www.15yearstolife.com

Today I filed an amicus brief on behalf of a list of leading criminal justice scholars, supporting petitioners in All Of Us Or None v. Bowen. AOUON and other organizations have filed a petition asking that the Secretary of State allow people serving their sentences in jails post-realignment, or under community post-release supervision, to vote in the elections. In doing so, they rely on the California Constitution, which grants the vote to everyone except those “imprisoned or on parole for the conviction of a felony”. The Secretary of State, however, guides inmates not to vote if they are felons, even if they are serving their sentence in jail.

Here’s the summary of our argument in support of the petition:

Following the California Criminal Justice Realignment, inmates convicted of non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual offenses will serve their sentence in county jails, rather than in state prisons. The legislative history of AB 109, as well as its language and the practices it directs and encourages, suggest that the legislature intended to use local facilities not merely as a cost-saving measure, but rather as a tool in recidivism reduction through community corrections, reentry and rehabilitative programming. Amici posit that the local setting of jails is an ideal locus for implementing community reintegration goals, and that civic involvement, including enfranchisement, is paramount to these goals. A broad interpretation of the right to vote as including all population in local jails—convicted of non-serious, non-sexual, non-violent offenses, felonies and misdemeanors alike—is fully congruent with these goals. Moreover, enfranchising a broader population, as a result of AB 109, would increase democracy and encourage participation of underserved low-income communities and communities of color in the political and civic process. Finally, Amici rely on empirical research findings to suggest that enfranchisement of all jailed and formerly jailed individuals can positively contribute to recidivism reduction, a socially and economically desirable outcome.

The full brief can be downloaded from Dropbox.

BREAKING NEWS: Felon Disenfranchisement Policy Challenged

Today, several Californian civil rights organizations filed a new lawsuit with the First District Appellate Court, arguing against Secretary of State Deborah Bowen’s policy of disenfranchising all felons, including those who, after realignment, serve time in jail.

And… CCC is involved! A group of criminal justice scholars, represented by yours truly, will be filing an amicus brief shortly in support of the lawsuit.

Here’s what is going on: As some readers may know, Californians imprisoned in state institutions, or on parole, are disenfranchised, but jail inmates and probationers have a right to vote. The realignment, as we know, puts many formerly imprisoned felons in county jails, for part or all of their sentence.

The legal language gives the right to vote to all inmates who are not “imprisoned”. Nonetheless, the California Secretary of State interprets the law as if the felons who will be doing time in jail should remain disenfranchised, and instructs the inmates accordingly. Several inmate rights organizations are now petitioning the Court of Appeals for an original writ, asking that voting rights be extended to everyone serving time in jail or on post-jail community supervision, whether felon or misdemeanant.

We are putting together an amicus brief on behalf of criminal justice scholars to support the petition. The main argument in the brief is that the Realignment was informed by a perspective of reentry and community-based corrections, and as such should encourage civic engagement. We also argue that jails, especially post-Realignment, are the ideal setting for encouraging reintegration through civic rights. The Realignment gives us the opportunity to make that argument on sound legal ground at least with regard to non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual offenders doing time in (or out on supervision from) county jails.

I will post the finished brief after filing. For now, here’s a link to the petition.

Examining Realignment: How Will We Know if it’s Working

Join the Association for Criminal Justice Research for its 75th Semi-Annual Conference March 22-23 at the Lion’s Gate Hotel in Sacramento (McClellan Campus). The theme is Examining Realignment: How Will We Know if it’s Working? Speakers include: Matt Cate, Diane Cummins, sheriffs, chief probation officers, DAs and judges, representatives from the LAO, PPIC, RAND, the Senate and many other organizations. For complete program information, scholarship applications, and registration, please contact Rebecca Blanton at rblanton@library.ca.gov.

New Paper on Realignment

Our friends at the Warren Institute have published a new paper by Rebecca Sullivan Silbert, titled Thinking Critically about Realignment in California, which you can read in full here. The nice thing about this publication is its clear and understandable language; Silbert breaks down technical complexities and makes this policy change much more accessible for all of us. Here are some highlights.

Silbert starts by delineating the difference between county jails and state prisons prior to realignment, including implications of jails’ smaller size, mandatory parole for state prisoners, and state costs stemming from the return to custody of parolees.

The paper then discusses overcrowding in state prisons, which it attributes to four factors: The gradual increase in sentencing, the labeling of more crime as violent and serious, the inability to cope with addictions and mental illness, and the mandatory parole mechanism with the potential return to prison for violations.

The main changes due to realignment are concisely discussed. They include serving one’s sentence in jail; split sentences between prison and jail, at judicial discretion;  having some state prisoners come under the auspices of community post-release programs in lieu of state parole; and sending parole violators to jail in lieu of prison.

The report then goes on to discuss the level of readiness of county institutions for the task of incarcerating more people and for longer terms, as well as the concerns about the medical and mental health needs of the new county inmates. Silbert then brings up concerns about “charging up” as well as about defense attorneys negotiating state prison because of the shorter post-sentence supervision implied.

The report does not discuss juvenile realignment, but there are plenty of other sources of information on that.