With prisoner sentences now being cut to slash budgets, jail overcrowding and prison staff getting laid off, it’s nice to learn that something about our California penal system is working.
This SCV Bail Blogger just learned that fewer felons are dodging probation, thanks to a new criminal justice realignment program that has replaced the state’s old parole system. Since this change was made, a new report says only 4 percent of felons have failed to report to their county probation officers after their release – a huge drop from 14 percent who faced fugitive arrest warrants last year — which puts fugitive numbers at an all time low.
What is parole realignment? Ironically, it also came into being as a result of budget cutting. To save money, the state decided that more than 23,000 ex-convicts would be supervised at the county level instead of by state parole agents, after this new law took effect last October.
As part of realignment, most counties also dispatch their probation officers to pick up offenders from prison, instead of just kicking them out the door. Some officers even work with inmates before their release to help them find work and housing.
Another, related law, passed in tandem with this realignment, says that ex-cons can now be released from parole after six-months, if they show up to all their appointments and don’t have any infractions. (Prior to this, parole supervision lasted a full year).
Both methodologies may work because it is human nature to put up with unpleasant ‘chores’ if the person involved knows he/she will be rewarded rather than shamed. It’s too soon to say this will result in lower crime rates and fewer ex-cons committing new crimes, but officers plan to track that data.
One thing is certain — realignment has dramatically reduced the state prison population below 140,000 for the first time since 1996, and it has slashed the number of state-supervised parolees below 70,000.
These new figures also reveal that judges and prosecutors are increasing their use of split sentences, in which offenders serve half their time behind bars and the remainder under supervision or alternative custody like house arrest.
And, on a related, cost cutting note…
California law makers are now proposing to do away with jury trials for misdemeanor cases, where the punishment for misdemeanor offenses is six months or less. The thinking behind this move claims that what the offender lacks in jail time spent; they will more than make up for with a lifetime of consequence for having a conviction on their permanent record.
Who’s to say a move like issuing these new California criminal justice realignment programs will work for our state’s criminal justice system. It another, “wait and see.”
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