By Khalida Sarwari
A year after California’s prison realignment legislation went into effect, one question on the minds of some in the law enforcement community and beyond is: did the state’s efforts to reduce the number of inmates in prison have the desired effect?
On Nov. 20, the Southwest Santa Clara Valley League of Women Voters will host Sheila Mitchell, Santa Clara County’s chief probation officer who chaired the countywide planning committee that developed the historic program, for a presentation assessing the realignment process and the impact it has had thus far on the county.
State prison realignment, or AB 109, was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in April 2011 and went into effect Oct. 1, 2011. The law moved low-level offenders sentenced to non-serious, non-violent or non-sex offenses from state prisons to county jails and programs in an effort to reduce the number of inmates in the state’s 33 prisons, with the stipulation that no inmates currently in prison would be transferred to county jails or released early.
The prison-reduction order, mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court, required the state to lower its prison population by 33,000 inmates by June 2013.
According to Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a coalition of more than 40 organizations that aim to curb spending by reducing the number of prisoners and prisons, the state’s prison population has dropped to 124,701 from a high of 173,479 in 2006 while the state’s jail population has increased by 2,849 over the last year.
Additionally, the organization claims the state is spending less on corrections than it did two years ago and that crime rates continue to fall.
Titled “California Prison Realignment Program: How is it impacting Santa Clara County?” the presentation with Mitchell will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Saratoga Library, 13650 Saratoga Ave. in Saratoga.
For more information, call Joan Sarlo at 408.379.2185 or email joansarlo@sbcglobal.net.
