LAKE COUNTY — Steve Buchholz returned to a familiar position. He came out of retirement to serve as Interim Chief Probation Officer for Lake County.

He worked for the Lake County Probation Department for more than 30 years and served as Chief Probation Officer for nearly 16 years. Report by Lake County Record-Bee.

Buchholz will assist in the management of the transition that Lake County will make as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in May to fix California’s overcrowded prison problem.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation began efforts to cut the inmate population in its 33 prisons by May 2013. State legislators then passed, and the governor signed into law, Assembly Bill 109 to help meet the court order. Lawmakers allocated $5 billion for counties to implement local solutions.

“AB 109 shifts the responsibility for incarcerating many low-risk inmates’ from the state to counties like ours,” Buchholz said.

On Sept. 20, the Lake County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to help the county manage a change in the Lake County corrections system.

“This plan is the result of many hardworking professionals in the corrections system, and is a solid first step toward helping the county manage additional offenders,” Buchholz said.

The state will continue to incarcerate offenders who commit serious, violent or sexual crimes, but the counties will supervise, rehabilitate and manage “low-level offenders.”

Some of the offenders who are not designated as “violent, serious or sexual” by legal definition, do pose a risk to the community, according to Buchholz.”It is our goal to closely monitor all offenders being returned to Lake County, as well as those who can no longer be sentenced to state prison, until we determine they do not present a risk to our community.”

Buchholz said it is unfortunate that the funding provided by the state will probably fall far short of the financial responsibilities imposed on local jurisdictions with realignment legislation.

The Lake County Community Corrections Partnership (CCP), including the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Lake County District Attorney’s office and Probation Department among other agencies, worked to research options.

“It is not a matter of whether we want to deal with this; it is a matter of how we will deal with this big change,” Buchholz said.

“I am disappointed that former Lake County Chief Probation Officer Meredith Helton (now Marino) of Texas wrote a letter to the editor on this subject without first obtaining all the facts. That letter printed in the Sept. 22, Record-Bee edition suggests that no one in Lake County had been working on contrary to the former chief’s opinion,” Buchholz said.

In fact, he said that Lake County is one of a handful of counties to adopt and approve a realignment plan and submit it to the state prior to Oct. 1, 2012. All of the plan expenditures are for evidence-based programs.

In addition to changes at the Hill Road Correctional Facility to hold more inmates, community corrections programs will be expanded. Lake County will open a day-reporting center where offenders will go through a multi-phase program that includes ongoing reporting to the center, intensive treatment and training, and testing for drug and alcohol use.

Offenders will also participate in classes proven to change criminal thinking, Buchholz said.

“This program is not soft on participants; they will be held accountable for their actions. Failure to comply with day reporting center rules and guidelines will result in tighter curfews, more frequent visits to the center, additional classes, electronic monitoring, or incarceration. Additionally, we will open a program in the jail that will prepare inmates for employment and anti-criminal behavior.”

Buchholz said he is pleased that the Board of Supervisors approved the plan to help manage the additional offenders that Lake County will now have to manage as a result of AB 109. He thinks Lake County is taking a balanced and financially sound approach.

“If we change criminal behavior, we all benefit as these offenders become contributors to our community. Yes, there will be offenders who fail, but that is why we have the jail,” Buchholz said.

The CCP recommended BI Incorporated to assist Lake County in managing AB 109. BI works with almost a dozen California counties, such as Napa, Merced and Madera, where positive results are reported. BI Incorporated supports approximately 900 correctional agencies in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam and Australia. The company provides agencies with compliance technologies, monitoring services, evidence-based supervision, treatment programs for community-based parolees, probationers and pre-trial defendants.

BI’s solutions assist federal, state and local agencies to supervise a range of people from low- to high-risk offenders by combining new technology and expert technical services.

“By bringing in an experienced company, we can adapt quickly. In Merced County, for example, the county and BI set up a day-reporting center where community-based offenders go for supervision, treatment and training, rather than incarceration. In a county where the unemployment rate nears 20 percent, almost nine of 10 offenders who go to the Merced day-reporting center exit the program with a job or are in school. When people are working or see a positive future, they are more likely to stay out of trouble. And, importantly, the cost of these programs is much lower than incarceration,” Buchholz said.

The strategies were designed for the county to best manage the changes that AB 109 requires. The Board of Supervisors will receive regular updates regarding the progress of the plan.

“As a person involved with criminal justice for many years, I believe when we offer rehabilitation services, establish positive community links, and teach basic employment and decision-making skills, recidivism rates will be reduced, more victims avoided and taxpayers will pay less for incarcerating habitual re-offenders. Lake County is taking that approach. Modifications to our plan will be made as the needs of our community and offenders become more clearly defined,” Buchholz said.

Tammy California, Early Release, Overcrowding, Prison Realignment

Kentucky DOC resumed releasing prison inmates under controversial parole rules Friday after an appeals judge blocked a lower-court judge’s order to stop the releases.  Report from the Lexington Herald-Leader.

More than 80 inmates scheduled for release Friday spent much of the day wondering whether they would get out. The Department of Corrections began releasing them late in the day after Chief Court of Appeals Judge Sara Combs issued her order.  But Combs said her order would be in effect only until the state Supreme Court decides whether to take the case or issues other orders about it …

At issue are changes put in place last year under which felons began getting additional credit toward completing their sentences.  That has allowed thousands to be released from prison or from parole supervision earlier than under previous rules.  The legislature prompted the changes to try to reduce prison costs.  Since late May 2008, the Department of Corrections has released more than 3,100 parolees from supervision and more than 2,400 inmates from prisons and jails under the rules.

But in an order released Thursday, Circuit Judge David A. Tapp said the state had applied the rules illegally because felons got credit to cut their sentences based on periods they were on parole before the new rules took effect.  Tapp, whose circuit is Pulaski, Lincoln and Rockcastle counties, issued an injunction to block any more releases from prison or parole statewide.  LaDonna Thompson, state corrections commissioner, appealed Tapp’s order Friday, resulting in Combs’ two-page order.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Economic Issues, Kentucky, Probation and Parole

California state corrections officials are proposing to make the massive budget cuts ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by reducing the number of ex-convicts on parole by more than 25% and allowing prison inmates to shorten their sentences by completing rehabilitation programs.  Reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The plan, outlined [on Friday] by Schwarzenegger’s corrections chief, Matthew Cate, resembles past proposals offered by the department that have met with strong opposition from local law enforcement officials and have ultimately been withdrawn.  But in a concession to those groups, Cate said his agency would propose legislation enabling police to search former prisoners and seize their property without a warrant for at least three years after their release, even if they are not placed on parole.

The plan would reduce the number of parolees monitored by the state by more than 30,000 from the current 114,000. As a result, fewer would also be sent back to prison for parole violations. Together with the additional time off their sentences that inmates could earn by completing programs, state lockups would see an estimated reduction of about 8,000 prisoners, on average, from the initiative.

Even with the cuts, Cate said, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is unlikely to reach the $400 million in spending reductions for the coming fiscal year ordered by the governor when he signed the budget approved by lawmakers in February.   Cate said other elements of the department’s plan include cuts of up to 200 positions at the agency’s headquarters in Sacramento, about 10% of its workforce there; adjusting upward the dollar value of property crimes needed for them to be prosecuted as a felony, to account for inflation; and using satellite tracking technology on parolees who commit technical violations, such as failing a drug test or missing an appointment, as an alternative to sending them back to prison.

vericatrajkova California, Early Release, Economic Issues, Inmate Programs, Probation and Parole

Some lawmakers still don’t understand why cash-strapped Michigan is keeping foreign criminals behind bars rather than handing them off to the federal government for immediate deportation.  This report from the Lansing State Journal.

Legislation sponsored by state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith would let state inmates with deportation orders be moved to federal custody after serving at least half their minimum sentence. A House subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the measure Tuesday.”Why should our taxpayers be paying for the care, housing and feeding of prisoners for whom the federal government has papers sending them home?” asked Smith …

Michigan now requires all prisoners to serve their minimum term before being considered for release.  Smith’s bill would relax the law so some immigrant inmates here illegally or whose conviction requires deportation are turned over to federal authorities earlier. Murderers, rapists and habitual offenders couldn’t qualify for an early exit from the country.

The measure has hit resistance from [some] lawmakers who worry that everything from fairness issues to the complexities of immigration law make it unworkable.  Rep. John Proos said it’s unfair to release foreigners early when Americans in the state’s prisons would have to serve longer. “What is the response by the victims and their families who now see justice denied by one-half?” he asked …

As of March, Michigan had 156 inmates with final deportation orders who could be freed immediately to be shipped home by the federal government if Smith’s legislation is approved, her office said. Sixty-six were from Mexico, 17 from Cuba and 11 from Iraq.  Another 55 prisoners potentially could be handed over if a final deportation order is entered. Hundreds of other foreign nationals are serving time for murder or criminal sexual conduct, were sentenced as habitual offenders or haven’t got halfway through their sentence, so they would be ineligible for the switch …

The legislation is modeled after programs in New York, Arizona and – most recently – Rhode Island. The states work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to identify and deport convicts if their offenses are considered nonviolent. The governors of Washington and New Hampshire recently pitched similar plans.ICE says New York has saved $140 million since 1995 through its criminal deportation program. Arizona has saved $18 million in detention costs since 2005. More than 114,000 criminals were removed from the U.S. in the past fiscal year.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Economic Issues, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens, Michigan

Criminals are using the lack of rehabilitation in South Australian jails to win less jail time.

In the past 12 months, evidence of the lack of rehabilitation has been considered by judges when:

• Releasing a multiple child sex offender from indefinite detention partly because a lack of resources had delayed rehabilitation.
• Overturning the indefinite detention of a rapist, partly because it was “unfair” he was denied rehabilitation reserved for those soon to be released.
• Fixing a non-parole period for a drug user, commenting he could access better rehabilitation in the community.
• Suspending the sentence of a man convicted of assault, commenting this would allow him to access community rehabilitation.
• Lowering a non-parole period for a sex offender, commenting prison could set back his recovery.

Chair of the Law Society’s Criminal Law Committee George Mancini said the trend was increasing because of a State Government policy of longer sentences. “It is an aspect of overcrowding, of longer terms of imprisonment and not spending sufficient resources on rehabilitation,” he said.  A spokesman for Prisons Minister Tom Koutsantonis defended the Government’s record on rehabilitation.  “Prior to 2005, there was no sex offender treatment in SA prisons at all,” the spokesman said.

A number of the recent decisions have been made on the advice of Dr Raeside, a consulting psychiatrist to the Department of Correctional Services, who has been praised by judges for his professionalism and is highly critical of rehabilitation in the state’s jails.

“I figure if we are going to lock more people up for longer (whether one agrees with that policy or not) then we ought to do something for them whilst they are there to reduce the chances of them re-offending and make the community safer when they get out,” he said.

vericatrajkova Australasia, Australia, Drug Treatment & Diversion, Early Release, INTERNATIONAL, Inmate Programs, Private Prisons, Sex Offenders, South Australia

Several Republican legislators in Arizona are blasting a proposal to put some prison inmates into a home-arrest program — a proposal that actually was floated by their own party leaders.  This report from AZStarNet.

Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, said many of the people who would be eligible for an early release were originally charged with very serious offenses. He said the fact they were convicted of or pleaded guilty to some lesser crime as part of a plea deal does not make them suitable for home arrest. “They jeopardize women and children,” Harper said.

The fight stems from a request by legislative budget staffers to the Department of Corrections to figure out how much money the state could save if it allowed some people to serve the last year of their sentence on home arrest instead of behind bars.  The request was based on direction from the Republican chairpersons of the House and Senate Appropriations committees. Based on the criteria presented, the savings was pegged at $22 million …

Of 300 [potential release applicants] he reviewed, Harper found 50 who he said should not be released, even to a home- arrest program, one day before serving their full sentence.  The list is heavily populated with those charged with dealing or trafficking in drugs, many with more than 100 pounds of marijuana. There also were several whose prior charges or records included multiple drunken-driving convictions, domestic violence, theft and child abuse.  Harper said these people would be automatically released into home arrest if the program were enacted.

Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said Harper left out one critical element. Even if an inmate met [the law's] criteria, the plan requires each case to be reviewed, individually, by the Board of Executive Clemency. Lamoreaux said that panel could decide if an individual would be a danger to the community, even if required to wear a global positioning system ankle bracelet and be subject to drug and alcohol testing.

vericatrajkova Arizona, Early Release, Economic Issues

There are not many winners in the new New York State budget, but the fiscal plan will make it easier for some prison inmates to be released early for medical, merit and other factors.  This report from the Buffalo News.

The relaxed standards, contained deep within the 2009 state budget, go beyond the much-publicized reforms to the Rockefeller-era drug laws that Gov. David A. Paterson and lawmakers pushed to include in the fiscal plan over the objections of many district attorneys.  The provisions will, according to supporters, encourage more humane treatment of a select number of inmates while, in some cases, making prisons safer. The efforts will also save money and, eventually, help in the years ahead to close expensive facilities that are seeing fewer inmates.

But critics insist that some of  the new standards are open to wide interpretation that will result in the release of still-dangerous inmates.  “It’s a wholesale change in the policies that have led to the most significant drop in the violent crime rate of any state in the nation,” said State Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, a Finger Lakes Republican who until January had served for years as chairman of the Senate’s Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee. “These issues, taken together, will ensure more violent criminals are out on the streets, and that’s going to create tremendous pressur e for law enforcement. It will make our cities less safe,” Nozzolio said.

The major sentencing change involves the Rockefeller drug laws, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for some drug violations and providing judges with more discretion to steer some individuals to treatment instead of prison … The new budget adopted last week [also] permits some inmates to be released on medical parole if approved by a physician and the state Parole Board, a plan originally proposed by Paterson in December. It is the first major change to medical parole laws since 1992, when terminally ill inmates were first allowed to leave prison early. It also recognizes the prison system’s increasingly aging population; the number of inmates older than 55 has risen from 1,500 to more than 3,600 in the last decade … The Paterson administration estimates that 45 individuals now in prison could be released this year. They estimate $2 million in savings this year from the early releases …

The new budget also includes an expansion of the merit-time program that permits early release of eligible inmates, including violent felons. It allows the release of such inmates six months before the completion of their minimum sentence. Not eligible are those convicted of first-degree murder or sex crimes.   The new merit-time effort takes into consideration whether an inmate participated in no less than two years of college programming while in prison and other efforts to reduce recidivism rates, such as enrollment in a state-approved apprenticeship program. Credit can also be given for working as an inmate hospice aide. The inmate’s prison behavior, and even whether they filed a “frivolous” civil lawsuit while in prison, are also considered as factors for the credit.

There is a great deal more detail and background in the Buffalo News article.

vericatrajkova Drug Treatment & Diversion, Early Release, Economic Issues, New York, Sentencing

Proposed cuts to the Washington State Department of Corrections budget could see hundreds of felons released into the community early, corrections officers and victim advocates argued Tuesday in response to legislative proposals.  As reported by the Seattle PI.

Contending that a Senate proposal to close the McNeil Island Corrections Center and other cuts could cause 1,400 to 1,900 convicts to be released early, prison employees union leader Tracey Thompson said too little has been done to research the impact such a move would have on public safety. “Allowing early release when you’re also reducing supervision just doesn’t make sense,” said Thompson, secretary treasurer with Teamsters Local 117 …

The Senate proposal would see about 107 Department of Corrections positions cut during the coming two years, leaving the department roughly 662 workers short of the staffing level needed to support current service levels, according to state projections.  Suggested cuts would still see spending at the department increase by $31 million from 2009 to 2011, a time period when the department is expected to spend $1.8 billion to incarcerate and monitor convicted felons. While overall spending would increase under the proposal, the Senate plan would eliminate $124 million in expected expenses, either through spending cuts or by obtaining other funding sources …

Both House and Senate proposals take into account savings from a change in law allowing the department to issue 90-day housing vouchers to inmates who are scheduled for release but cannot find a place to live. Under existing law, offenders who are due to be released on so-called “good time” — a 10 to 50 percent sentence reduction granted to inmates who behave in prison — can’t be freed until they establish a residence.

Also included the proposals are cuts to post-prison services and constraints, including one-year reductions in the amount of time offenders will be monitored by community corrections officers after they’re released. Violent felons would be monitored by the department for three years instead of four after they’re released from prison.  The Senate proposal would see a 50-percent cut to offender re-entry programs such as vocational training and mental health services, cutting spending on the program by $15.6 million. The competing proposal from the House would reduce funding for such programs by $10.6 million.

vericatrajkova Community Corrections, Early Release, Economic Issues, Probation and Parole, Washington

State Rep. John Proos said Gov. Granholm is putting public safety at risk through a state corrections budget that releases prisoners to make up for budget shortfalls.  Reported by the Herald-Palladium.

Proos wrote in a press release. “The governor has predicated her corrections budget on releasing nearly 3,886 prisoners. That is unacceptable, especially without first considering reforms and cost-saving measures.”  The governor should look for opportunities for reform, Proos said. Instead, her budget for the Michigan Department of Corrections would release 147 prisoners a day until Oct. 1, he said …

John Cordell, public information officer for the corrections department, said the department carefully evaluates prisoners before releasing them.   “Can we ensure that none of these 3,000 prisoners ever commit a crime again? No, we can’t,” Cordell said. “Nor can we assure the 12,000 prisoners we parole every year won’t commit a crime again.”    But the department is doing all it can to screen prisoners and to have support and re-entry systems in place to help them “become better citizens, viable and productive citizens,” Cordell said. That includes increasing the number of parole officers, increasing “real-time GPS tethers so we can accurately track where offenders are” and increasing funding for re-entry services from $25 million to $50 million in the next fiscal year, he said.

Proos said the state could save: $30 million by stopping corrections employee pay raises; $60 million by reducing overtime offered; $5 million by consolidating administrative offices; $3.5 million by streamlining transportation of prisoners; and $30 million by reducing cost of food services.   The June 2008 Auditor General’s report states: “The Department of Corrections should analyze the potential outcomes of hiring private contractors to provide prisoner meals at its correctional facilities … Based on these costs per prisoner per day, we estimate that Michigan could save from $10.2 million to $38 million annually” …

Cordell said the department has cut nearly $500 million from its budget since fiscal 2001-02. Releasing between 3,500 and 4,000 prisoners – all of whom are “past their minimum sentence date” – will save some $125 million in the next budget year, he added.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Economic Issues, Food Services, Michigan, Probation and Parole

Marion County FL is considering joining the growing list of jails who electronically monitor nonviolent offenders instead of keeping them in jail, according to the Miami Herald.

The Marion County Commission says a pilot program could release some inmates with ankle bracelets would reduce overcrowding at the jail and cut expenses. Inmates would pay the cost of their own supervision.  Commissioners are seeking more information from potential contractors. Some county judges approve the plan, saying “the answer is not always banishment.”

Sheriff Ed Dean says he’ll comply if judges approve the program, but he opposes the idea “if it’s only a way to save money.” He says an ankle bracelet wouldn’t change behaviors that landed many inmates in jail.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Electronic Monitoring, FL Marion County, Florida