DID ANYONE SEE THIS COMING?

By Jeff Doyle

PACOVILLA Corrections blog
April 11, 2012

From KERO 23: TAFT, Calif. -- Police in Taft, say a career criminal is demonstrating what’s wrong with the new state [‘realignment’] law that keeps non-violent offenders out of state prison. The suspect is facing new charges that could have him spending 26 years in county jail. Rodger Baxter is well known to law enforcement in Taft. Now, the law that keeps non-violent offenders at the county level to help save the state money means he could spend the next quarter century inside the county jail.

Unfortunately, guys like Rodger Baxter aren’t lovable tipplers like Mayberry’s Otis Campbell. Similarly, the smallest county’s lockup is no Mayberry Jail. However, the similarities between the latter two are sufficient to present a serious impediment to public safety–Overcrowded jails are much more dangerous than overcrowded prisons, for a myriad of reasons. And, each of those reasons raise numerous questions nobody asked before passing the buck labeled AB109 [the realignment law].

For example, do county sheriffs have the authority to use lethal force to prevent riots, escapes and the mass destruction of property? Those powers are explicitly granted to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation because it is charged with keeping felons segregated from the community–Everyone in jail isn’t a felon and AB109 is mute on the use of force.

So, what happens if the Lerdo jail one day becomes packed with disgruntled, realigned jail inmates who decide to act like disgruntled prison inmates? How do authorities respond to riots and mass escapes in such instances? We have experience dealing with uprisings in large, relatively remote prison settings–What about a downtown jail tower in a city like Fresno or Riverside? When the fires start, where are the yards to evacuate all the new clientele? On the roof, right?

It’s like the [KFRO 23] article says, jails are not designed for long term incarceration. The majority of our metropolitan jails were never designed to deal with the type of incident prisons deal with.

Speculation you say? Guilty. Speculators ply their trade predicting the timing of the inevitable. The scenarios presented are inevitable. It’s just a matter of time.

County corrections officers and jail deputies: watch your backs!

EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s a given that the counties are not about to keep anyone in their jails for years. I bet they’ll dump them on the streets repeatedly until they get around to committing a serious violent crime that will force the state to accept them in CDCR. Realignment means that criminals will be running loose all over the state. Realignment? That’s why they call your guv ‘Moonbeam’!