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Riverside County to Start Hiring Jail Staff

February 11th, 2010
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Sheriff Stanley SniffSheriff Stan Sniff received the full support of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors today to begin hiring guards and other  personnel needed to staff new cell blocks at the county’s Banning jail. Reported by KESQ News Service.

In a 5-0 vote, the board affirmed that the Sheriff’s Department would have the $12.6 million Sniff requested to fund 142 new positions in fiscal year 2010-11, in addition to roughly $750,000 for hiring in the current fiscal year.

“We’re very pleased with the board’s decision,” the sheriff told City News Service.

The expansion of the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility is expected to wrap up next month, but many of the personnel needed for security and administrative functions have yet to be hired.

Sniff warned the board twice last year — in May and November — that he was short of the funds necessary to hire people to work in the new facilities. But faced with a then-$50 million — and growing — county budget deficit, the supervisors shied away from new financial commitments.

he $12.6 million in next year’s budget will assure funding to hire 45 sworn law enforcement personnel to work at the jail, 49 non-sworn correctional deputies and 48 “classified” employees, including food service workers, clerks and accountants, according to the sheriff.

He doubted all the money that was approved would be needed and predicted the new jail units would be fully operational in 12 months.

The two-year, $80 million Smith expansion includes 582 inmate beds in three housing units encompassing 173,000 square feet.

With the pending release of some 40,000 convicted felons from state penal facilities — in compliance with a federal judicial panel’s mandate that California’s prison population be reduced for health reasons — opening the new cells can’t come a moment too soon, said Supervisors Jeff Stone and John Benoit.

“We are going to have to have the capacity to house more dangerous criminals that we shouldn’t be responsible for housing in the first place,” Stone said, alluding to expectations that the parolees will offend again.

“We have to make our facilities function as prisons when they’re detention centers,” he said.

Sniff agreed, saying law enforcement officials statewide were preparing for a spike in crime — and greater pressure on local resources.

“It scares all of us, with scarce resources and additional loads being dropped on us,” he said. “The county jail is at the front end of the system. We just don’t have the bed space.”

The sheriff said the county has 3,600 inmate beds available, compared to 6,000 in neighboring Orange County. Some 3,500 prisoners were released before the completion of their jail terms in 2008 due to overcrowding in the county jail system, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Supervisor Bob Buster wondered whether talk of risks to public safety from recidivism wasn’t “grossly exaggerated” and suggested more money might be diverted to rehabilitation programs and deputies drawn from other areas to staff the jails.

Sniff replied that pulling deputies from the field would leave a gap in patrols assigned to unincorporated communities.

According to the sheriff, in the coming months, he will “laterally” move inmates from older jail units to the new cell blocks, without realizing an immediate net gain in jail space.

The shift will instead give sheriff’s officials a chance to exercise the equipment now in place at Smith, as part of a “warranty” check to ensure all the mechanisms are functioning as promised.

“We can’t just let that stuff sit there and not put a load on it,” he said. “If anything is broken, it needs to be fixed by the people who supplied it.”

janchavarie CA Riverside County, Personnel Issues

New Jail Problems in CA County

February 2nd, 2010
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Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility The 173,000 square feet of new jail space at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning will be Riverside County’s most secure and advanced when completed next month. As reported by the Press-Enterprise.

Construction began two years ago on the $80 million, 582-bed expansion. There’s just one problem. The county hasn’t yet found the nearly $13 million a year needed to operate the new jail expansion.

If there is no new funding, the facility still could open but it would not provide the net increase in jail beds county officials had sought.

Riverside County is facing what some officials call its most challenging budget situation in history.

Supervisors are grappling with ways to bridge a $71 million budget gap and have said that over the next two years they might need to lay off as many as 1,600 workers.

The county’s discretionary revenues, which supervisors have control over, dropped to $609 million this year, while ongoing expenses top $680 million.

County CEO Bill Luna last week gave supervisors three options that would cut the county’s public safety departments, which include the Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office, anywhere from 3 to 10 percent in an effort to balance the county budget within two years.

The options included backfilling some of the sheriff’s losses in Prop. 172 sales tax revenue — a special fund for public safety — but not the nearly $13 million needed to run the Smith jail expansion.

Including the jail money would throw off the plan to balance the county’s budget within two years, Luna told supervisors.

Supervisors have long said public safety is their top priority, but some have said every department, including the sheriff’s, must make sacrifices and live within its means.

Sheriff Stan Sniff said he and his staff worked hard this year to find budget savings.

In a letter last week to supervisors, Sniff said the department is projected to close a $22.3 million budget gap by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The deficit was erased through a hiring freeze, early retirements, leaving promotional vacancies unfilled and securing a large federal grant, officials said.

But Sniff said his balanced budget does not include funding for the jail expansion. Additional cuts would be hard to absorb and would come from either jail operations or patrols in unincorporated areas, he said. “We are pretty threadbare,” Sniff said in an interview.

On a recent tour, workers were busy finishing the jail’s interior. Cell walls are 2 inches thick and made of 12-gauge metal, which maximizes space and is more secure.

The expansion’s 582 beds are in three housing units that are two stories each, and surround centralized medical and mental health services.

Each cell holds two beds — not dormitory style like in older jails — and each is easy to see into. Inmates won’t have to travel far for needed services, either — something sheriff’s officials say adds security.

Recreation areas are close by, as are areas for visitations, which will be done through a video link. “This is state of the art,” said Deputy Chief Steve Thetford, who oversees corrections. “It will be the most secure facility in our system.”

Sniff said the jail expansion is critical, given space shortages and the prospect of California releasing state prisoners into county custody, a move included in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most recent budget proposal.

“We are in crisis,” the sheriff said. “We already are in a position with no space.” The expansion will make the Smith correctional facility in Banning the county’s largest, with more than 1,500 beds.

Thetford said the Sheriff’s Department must hire 142 additional people to operate the jail. Sniff said it takes time to hire and train people. He said he needs a decision on how to move forward. “I need a signal pretty soon,” he said.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Marion Ashley said finding the funding for the jail is a priority for him. “I believe that public safety is not only our constitutional duty but our No. 1 goal,” he said at last week’s board meeting.

“We need to open Larry Smith and get that operating as soon as possible. Our jails are going to be under a lot of pressure, and we really need to expand our jail.”

But Supervisor Bob Buster said the jail should be looked at closely, noting that supervisors did promise taxpayers that it was one of their top priorities.

“The sheriff in his other operations needs to participate in reductions and skillful management so that he can free up money to help staff this jail,” Buster said. “He himself came in and agreed it was a top priority.”

Where the money will come from, though, remains in doubt. Supervisors are expected to again take up the county’s fiscal troubles Feb. 9.

Sheriff’s officials said even without the extra money to operate the Smith expansion, it won’t sit idle.

The department will shift inmates and staff from existing jails into the expansion. Plus, the county must eventually vacate 289 beds in an old jail in downtown Riverside because of seismic safety issues.

janchavarie CA Riverside County, Jail and Prison Construction

Proposed Jail Environmental Impact Report

November 20th, 2009
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A loss of open space and the potential for resulting development of the rural area are unavoidable impacts from a proposed new, 7,200-bed jail in Whitewater. Complete report on The Desert Sun.

A draft environmental impact report, released by Riverside Riverside CountyCounty officials Wednesday, describes the effects resulting from planning, constructing and operating the proposed jail facility, which would be built with 2,000 beds in an initial phase and could be expanded to 7,200 beds.The report also identifies appropriate, feasible mitigation measures and alternatives that may be adopted to reduce or eliminate impacts.

“It’s a step that must be completed before we can move forward. So at this point, it’s the most important step so far,” said county spokesman Ray Smith.

The report deems numerous potential environmental impacts — including traffic, noise, light pollution — “less than significant.”

“From the looks of it, there’s no silver bullet that would kill this project or any project like this. That’s good news,” Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley said.

But some opposed to the controversial jail location dispute that classification, saying the report downplays many negative impacts on the surrounding community.

“That’s typical Riverside County planning,” said Les Starks, president of the homeowners association in nearby Snow Creek and an opponent of the proposed jail location.

“Nothing will have any effect on anything. This will be fine because this is what they want.”

The public now has until Jan.15 to comment on the report, the normal 45-day comment period being extended due to upcoming holidays.

The jail is proposed for a nearly 200-acre site at the intersection of Rushmore Avenue and Tamarack Road on the north side of Interstate 10.

The Whitewater location preferred by county officials has garnered intense criticism from several Coachella Valley leaders, who argue it would be an eyesore along the highway, create public safety concerns and ultimately deter tourists from coming to the desert. A group of civic leaders has urged the county to look at land just outside Desert Hot Springs.

Report continues on The Desert Sun.

janchavarie CA Riverside County, Environment and Energy, Jail and Prison Construction

Riverside Jail Protesters Get Active

January 29th, 2009
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Opponents to Riverside County CA’s plans to build a 7,200-bed jail in Whitewater are planning to protest Supervisor Roy Wilson’s re-election campaign kick-off tonight.

In a news release, protesters blamed Wilson for the lack of public hearings in the valley, saying supervisors’ meeting schedule makes it “nearly impossible for valley citizens to voice their comments to the supervisors” …

County officials have proposed to build a jail along Interstate 10, just west of Highway 111, to ease overcrowding.  When complete, it will include 7,200 beds.  Officials are in the early stages of the planning process … The proposed site has come under heavy criticism from local residents and valley hospitality groups, who say the jail will put a dent in the desert’s tourism industry.

jakking CA Riverside County