The House of Delegates Judiciary Subcommittee A approved two pieces of draft legislation Jan. 9 aimed at increasing personal protection and decreasing the number of offenders currently in state’s corrections system.

The Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act “is an omnibus revision of the criminal justice system,” according to the bill’s abstract. “The primary objective of the bill is to maintain public safety and hold offenders accountable while reducing recidivism and improving outcomes for offenders.” Report by The State Journal.

The West Virginia Legislature has been looking at the issue of jail and prison overcrowding for some time. Jim Rubenstein, commissioner of the West Virginia Department of Corrections, and Larry Parsons, executive director of the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority, have testified before a variety of legislative interim committees on the issue. In previous testimony, both have said nearly 1,800 inmates have created a strain on already-strapped resources. Problems within the system include double-bunking, an increase in assaults and an inability to separate inmates based on classifications, among other problems.

But the Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act aims to strengthen probation and parole. For example, the bill would require courts and corrections authorities to incorporate risk and needs assessment information into the decision-making process, including for pre-trial supervision, at sentencing, in evaluating parole suitability and setting terms for parole and throughout the period of probation and parole supervision. The bill also authorizes the Department of Corrections to allow offenders to complete required programming in the community while under GPS monitoring.

Rubenstein said at the Jan. 9 meeting that the Department of Corrections does have a number of substance abuse treatment beds at Mount Olive as well as beds in the Beckley facility.

“We provide education, treatment and extended treatment,” he told the committee.

Rubenstein said the Department of Corrections is working to streamline how it determines an offender’s needs. He said the department will begin using LS/CMI, or Level of Service/Case Management Inventory, to determine if an inmate has a critical need, no need or is somewhere in between. He went on to say that some inmates are waiting for space to open up before they can be treated for their substance abuse addictions, though he couldn’t pinpoint how many.

“I imagine that would change from facility to facility,” he said.

The committee also approved a draft of a bill that would increase personal safety. Currently, the only type of restraining order a person can take out is against family or same-household members. However, the bill proposed a more general restraining order that can be issued in cases of stalking, trespassing and destruction of property, among other offenses.

Proceedings regarding the general restraining order would be heard in magistrate court as opposed to family court.

Although organizations associated with domestic violence pushed for this bill, it has not been vetted by law enforcement or the courts, according to counsel. Adults can take out this order for themselves, for minors or incapacitated adults. Petitioners must prove the acts against them as well as a reasonable apprehension that the acts would continue unless the order is issued.

“The idea is this will be, for a lot of folks, an opportunity to protect themselves in ways they can’t now,” counsel told the committee.

Both drafts will now go to the House Judiciary Committee for its consideration.

The state is trying it out in the Piedmont, and Caswell County is one of the counties going through a pilot program, which starts next month. Report by digtriad.com.

It’s called the Statewide Misdemeanant Confinement Program. It involves where inmates serve their sentences.

Right now the law says for misdemeanors of 90 days or less, inmates generally serve the time in county jails. There are exceptions when the jail is overcrowded or the inmate presents security or medical risks.

In the new program under the Justice Reinvestment Act, those serving three to six month sentences will stay at county jails instead of going to Dept. of Correction.

The state reimburses the county for holding the extra inmates and providing care, supervision and transportation. The measure saves taxpayers about $40 per inmate per day.

That’s why Caswell County is building a bigger jail that can hold more inmates. Right now the jail holds 42 inmates. The new jail that will open in 2013 will hold 108 inmates.

Sheriff Michael Welch said the sheriff’s department jumped at the chance to take part in the pilot program.

“We actually have the ability to create some possibilities within our rural county and also alleviate some of the burdens on the taxpayers in the county,” said Sheriff Welch.

The sheriff told us the full program will take effect in January for all participating counties.

But reality is settling in as local law enforcement agencies struggle to contain criminals with a history of violence, substance abuse and mental illness who previously would have been tucked away in state prisons. Report by Mercury News.

Los Angeles County had said its more than 22,000 jail beds could be full by Christmas, although officials now have pushed the projection back by several months. Officials in the state’s most populous county are eying early release of less serious offenders and considering alternatives to jail, such as tracking criminals with GPS-linked ankle bracelets.

In Orange County, more than 60 detainees recently had to sleep on the jail floor until beds could be made available. That evokes recent images from state prisons, which were so overcrowded that inmates were housed in three-tier bunk beds in gymnasiums and day rooms.

Fresno County no longer will incarcerate parole violators to keep from crowding its 2,427-bed jail. Parolees could still go to jail if they commit new crimes, but not for violating parole conditions.

The changes are the result of a law that took effect Oct. 1 that shifts responsibility for thousands of lower-level criminals from the state to local jurisdictions. Only defendants convicted after that date are affected.Judges no longer can send offenders to state prison for crimes such as auto theft, burglary, grand theft and drug possession for sale. Conrad Murray, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of singer Michael Jackson, will serve his four-year sentence in Los Angeles County jail, where his sentence will automatically be cut in half due to state law.

Inmates currently in state prison will complete their full sentences there, but parole violators who previously would have been returned to state prison now can only be incarcerated in county jails.

The law was driven by the state’s budget deficit and a federal court order, recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, requiring California to reduce its prison population by 33,000 inmates as a way to improve medical care.

“We anticipated some bumps in the road, and there have been,” said Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin, president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association.

He said the unexpected increase in the number of convicts coming to county jails has been the biggest problem to date.

The surge in some counties appears to be “a bubble” created because defense attorneys delayed sentencings until after the new law took effect so their clients would do their time in county jails instead of state prisons, said Dana Toyama, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The department projects the rate will level off in the coming months, she said.

If the trend continues, however, local law enforcement officials may have to lobby state legislators not only for more money but to shift some crimes back under state jurisdiction so offenders would again go to state prison, Fresno County Chief Probation Officer Linda Penner said.

“It was a massive overhaul of a very large system,” said Penner, who is president of the Chief Probation Officers Association of California. “I think we have to watch it for a while before we can go in and ask for legislative change.”

The early trends and responses are as varied as California’s 58 counties, each of which is taking a different approach under a law designed to give local jurisdictions more flexibility and responsibility for their own wrongdoers.

Counties have been given a total of $400 million to help pay their increased costs, and the state has set aside $603 million to help them build more jails. It also is giving cities and counties $490 million in other assorted law enforcement grants.

In Los Angeles County, Assistant Sheriff Cecil Rhambo Jr. said in late October that the county’s more than 22,000 jail beds might be full by Christmas. But department spokesman Steve Whitmore said the jails now are expected to reach capacity next spring or summer. The county is using some of the money it received from the state to hire more deputies, which will let the county accommodate more inmates, Whitmore said.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, a Republican, has been one of the most outspoken critics of the law, which was sought by Gov. Jerry Brown and approved by the Democrats who control the Legislature. He predicts an increase in crime as a result.

Cooley said his attorneys have been trained to comb offenders’ criminal histories, searching for factors that would enhance the charges against them and thus, if convicted, send them to state prison instead of county jail.

“We will look for every way around this that is ethical, honest, legitimate and lawful,” Cooley said. “We are going to give the courts the option to send them to ‘the joint’ if it’s appropriate.”

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon is taking a far different approach in a county that has seen no great influx of inmates. He has proposed that the county Board of Supervisors create a local sentencing commission that would help determine punishment based on criminals’ risk to public safety.

About 70 percent of the jail population in San Francisco and Los Angeles County is awaiting trial, and many of the detainees could be safety released using alternatives such as GPS tracking, he said. That would free jail space for those who have been convicted of more serious offenses.
“We are going to be doing business differently, but I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing,” Gascon said. “The reality is that if you look at the way we have incarcerated people and the recidivism rate, we haven’t been doing a very good job.”

Currently, about seven of every 10 inmates paroled statewide quickly commit a new crime, a recidivism rate far above the national average.

The shift is creating other challenges for local authorities.

“The common denominator to all these folks is an addiction to methamphetamine,” Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said of the inmates in his county who previously would have gone to state prisons. “That creates the challenges in getting them the services they need.”

Local officials also are dealing with dangerous criminals despite promises from state lawmakers that they would only face those convicted of non-serious, nonviolent and non-sex offenders.

“They are a large number, maybe even a majority, that have serious and violent offenses in their rap sheets,” even if their current offense is relatively minor, said Sacramento County Chief Probation Officer Don Meyer.

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims announced last week that her jail will no longer accept parole violators because of the surge in inmates there, forcing state parole agents to find other punishments for those who don’t follow the rules.

So far, her jail is less crowded than it was before the state’s realignment because Mims used state funding to open 432 minimum security jail beds. Her office also is working with county probation officers and local police departments to create teams that will do frequent checks on criminals placed on community supervision.

Orange County Assistant Sheriff Mike James said the jail still has 900 empty beds but doesn’t have the staff to manage the unexpected influx. Nearly 70 detainees were forced to sleep on the floor until beds could be made available.

“Long-term, if the numbers hold out to be true, you’ll be full and then difficult decisions will have to be made about who stays in and who gets released,” James said.

County Supervisor Ron Roberts said a good working relationship among law enforcement agencies in San Diego should make the transition easier. But he said many other counties are not handling the challenge well. Report by KPBS.

“San Diego is not an island,” he said, “We’re part of a state where many of the counties, they’re not going to be able to deal with this. There are not going to be hundreds of people that don’t belong there, there are going to be thousands of people on the streets of California that rightfully should be in jail.”

Thirty-seven of California’s 58 counties have jails that are already overcrowded.

In Los Angeles, Chief Probation Officer Donald Blevins is under pressure to leave because of a failure to reform the badly broken probation system. Employees have given him a vote of no confidence.

Meanwhile, community leaders are calling on Los Angeles’ sheriff to step down after the ACLU released a damning report.

Peter Eliasberg of ACLU said Sheriff Lee Baca has failed to address systemic violence and prisoner abuse in L.A.’s County overcrowded jails.

“For decades the LA county jail has had enormous problems, “Eliasberg said, “and for decades the sheriff’s department has failed to confront those. Either he or his spokesperson literally engages in a blanket policy of denial. “

Because of its size, LA will receive about a third of the offenders being passed down to county jurisdiction by the state.

Observers are concerned that the leaders of the criminal justice system in LA are under fire, on the brink of an historic change that could threaten public safety state wide.

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.

The jail-alternative program, established under the Mental Health Department in 2005, helps inmates who are mentally disabled by making sure they get the treatment they need and help to get them out of incarceration, because their mental-health symptoms could worsen the longer they’re locked up, said Pat Harney, the chairman of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Report by The Daily Iowan.

Jessica Peckover, team leader of the jail-alternative program, told the supervisors Thursday the most recent cost of a jail-bed day — when an inmate occupies a holding space — for the jail is reported as being $64.60 per day. The number of jail-bed days used by the 660 inmates prior to the jail-alternative program was 30,308 beds used in a year. After one year of the jail-alternative program, only 10,296 jail-bed days were used. The difference saved roughly $1.3 million in additional costs, Peckover said.

“Even taking into account the cost of the program since inception, there is still about $450,000 of cost savings,” she said.

Peckover said there are a number of unquantifiable cost-savings that include preventing repeat offenses, lawsuits, psychiatric hospitalizations, and committals of the mentally disabled inmates. Other savings include promoting community wellness, public safety, and the enhancement of inmates’ quality of life.

Supervisor Sally Stutsman, a strong supporter of the program, said it focuses most of its time helping these individuals at the Health and Human Services Building, but they also spend time at the jail or other communities.

“Not only does this help alleviate the crowding, but it’s also diverting people who shouldn’t be in jails,” she said. “It’s better for the individual because there’s a number of people related to criminal activity that have mental issues, and this really becomes a preventative program for those in need.”

Stutsman said that, without a doubt, the jail would be more overcrowded without this program.

“The community wanted us to create some alternative to putting people out of jail, and this is the best alternative that we came up with,” she said.

Harney also supports the program and said it’s helpful for Johnson County.

“The idea is to keep them out of jails and institutions, and I’m really glad we have this jail-alternative program in place,” he said.

That was not much of a surprise — the county has known those expenses are rising — but Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said it’s another reminder that the current jail is too small.    “The jail is still a huge issue out there that hasn’t been resolved,” he said.

The county spent $900,595 to house inmates elsewhere last year, up from $447,915 in 2006. It spent another $73,813 last year on transportation costs, compared with $48,109 two years before.  The county averaged 135 inmates a day last year, up from 115 in 2006; the Johnson County Jail has 92 beds …

Tax increases, the recent $20 million conservation bond and the recession mean that a new jail is probably a few years from becoming a reality, supervisors Chairman Terrence Neuzil said.  “I think it’s pretty difficult to think that we’re going to be able to solve this issue in the short term,” he said.

In the meantime, the county has implemented jail alternative programs to lessen the stress on the jail and recently began sending all overflow inmates to Marshall County, with Johnson County paying a lower rate than it had been to other counties.

Director Howard Skolnik said the governor’s proposal still includes closing down Nevada State Prison, which legislators have said they oppose. They haven’t, however, made a decision on that plan, which Skolnik said saves his operating budget $18 million a year.   “That’s a decision that needs to be made,” he said following the hearing before a joint subcommittee of Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means.    If lawmakers decide to keep NSP open, he said cuts will have to be made somewhere else or more money put into his budgets to balance them.

The plan does, however, include $9.6 million in money to plan and design a major expansion of Warm Springs prison, located next door to the old Nevada State Prison. And Skolnik has said in the past that expansion would restore most of the jobs lost by closing NSP.  The plan includes adding three modern housing units at Warm Springs and core facilities to house up to 1,500 inmates there. It would be built by 2013, in the meantime providing numerous construction jobs.

While the huge new prison in southern Nevada was taken off the Capital Improvement Projects list, the proposed budget does provide for construction of a badly needed southern Regional Medical Facility.  At present, the prison has its only medical center in Carson City even though most of the inmates are in the south.    Added to that project is a new execution chamber, which Skolnik said is needed because it’s unlikely the historic gas chamber in Carson City now used would meet the latest court requirements.   Together, those two projects would cost $62.2 million.

Skolnik said the plan laid out for the committee Thursday “will meet almost any scenario we’ve been asked to prepare.”

The proposed expansion would cost $22 million and add a third and fourth floor to the facility in Sheboygan’s south-side industrial park, doubling its 290-bed capacity.    “It’s a real jaw-dropping figure, but one that certainly the County Board is going to have to contend with,” County Administrator Adam Payne said Wednesday.   Brian Hoffmann, chairman of the county’s Law Committee, said construction is likely at least two years away, but the overcrowding problem needs to be publicized and plans made … “It’s arriving sooner than we anticipated,” Hoffmann said. “We thought we’d have another four, five years, but that’s apparently not going to happen unless people stop committing crimes right away.”

The number of inmates housed at the detention center has risen 64 percent in the last eight years, from an average of 91 inmates per day in 2002 to 142 inmates per day this year, said Sheriff Mike Helmke. If built as proposed, the larger facility would increase operating costs by $2.7 million to $3.5 million annually, based on 2009 wage and benefit levels, he said.

The detention center, built in 1998, has about 190 secure beds for adult male inmates and 96 dorm-style beds for those with work-release privileges, said Capt. Karol Salata, jail administrator for the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department. The jail attached to the sheriff’s department downtown has room for 40 adult females and 27 juveniles. It is currently well within its capacity.  The detention center, however, has been running at 92 to 93 percent of capacity this year, forcing secure inmates to be housed in the less secure work-release area, Salata said.

“We’re at a particular point in history where prisons are incredibly overcrowded,” Sessions said. “We’re also at a particular point in time in which there’s a potential for real change.”

Sessions is the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Vermont and has been a federal judge in Vermont since 1995. He was nominated by President Barack Obama, but will still need to be confirmed by the Senate, a process that he said can be highly political.   Sessions, who made national headlines in 2002 when he declared the death penalty unconstitutional, is currently a vice chairman of the commission, which sets sentencing policy for the United States and advises Congress and the executive branch on crime policy.

Options other than standard incarceration should be used more to address prison overcrowding, Sessions said. That includes drug treatment courts, placement in home confinement or community confinement, and split sentences in which part of a sentence is served in prison and part is served in the community.

Sessions also hopes to make rehabilitation a higher priority in federal sentences.   “For the last 15 years there’s been little interest in rehabilitation,” Sessions said.   Instead, punishment has been the priority.   “A person commits a crime, and they get X,” he said. “We’re going back to, ‘How do we get these people rehabilitated so when they get out of prison, they’re not a danger?’”

There is a great deal more background in the full article.