Overcrowding Forces Jails to Release Inmates

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s will begin the process of releasing as many as 150 non-violent offenders from the county prisons today.

Sheriff’s officials, who provide police services for Loma Linda, said the prisoner release will continue through Dec. 14.

It has become necessary to release prisoners because the county jail system is rapidly approaching capacity, officials said. The county is bound to keep the population down to remain in compliance with AB109 and AB117, or the state prisoner realignment.

Governor Jerry Brown signed the legislation as a way “to close the revolving door of low-level inmates cycling in and out of state prisons,” according to the California Department of Corrections.

The bills aim to cut the number of inmates in the state’s 33 prisons to 137.5 percent of design capacity by June 27, 2013, as ordered by the three-judge court and affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sheriff’s officials say they are carefully selecting who is released, said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Cpl. David Clifford.

“But there is criteria that’s been set in place to determine if they are eligible for early (release),” Clifford said “One is they must only have 30 days left in their (jail) commitment. Another one is that they evaluate the criminal history to make sure that the low-level offenders are the only ones being released into the communities.”

A prisoner’s conduct while in jail is also taken into account, sheriff’s officials said. The prisoner also must have served more than half of their sentence.

The county correctional facilities fill up at a faster rate because inmates that used to go to prison are now serving their time in jails, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Corrections.

Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center has a maximum capacity of 1,024 inmates and averages a daily population of 1,020. West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga is one of the largest county jails in the State of California and has a capacity of 3,347. Central Detention Center meantime has a capacity of 1,000, according to the sheriff’s department.

“The counties really only have so much room,” Thornton said. “Each county handles their populations and decides when and how many inmates they release.”