Sheriff Sounds Alarm On Inmate Overcrowding: ‘We’re In So Much Trouble In This County’

The same day that Gov. Jerry Brown’s office released its plan to further reduce California’s prison population, the sheriff from one of the state’s largest law enforcement agencies made a local visit, sharing, among other things, his concerns about an incarceration system bursting at the seams.

“We’re in trouble here in California; a lot if it is directly linked to realignment. It’s great to be very hard on crime, but unless you’re going to pay the freight of keeping those people separated, eventually it comes due,” Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff told a crowd gathered at Stadium Pizza in Wildomar during a May 2 Rotary Club of Wildomar meeting. (Watch the attached video to hear some of his comments from the meeting.)

Sniff made his case that has shifted thousands of inmates from the state prison system into county jails and is placing such a burden on his department that last year he was forced to early release 7,000 offenders as a result of local overcrowding.

“We’re in so much in trouble in this county. What really killed us all was AB 109 realignment,” he said. “One of the first things that happened is the jail system here in Riverside County burst at the seams.”

Suspects arrested on suspicion of crimes committed in Riverside County are all booked into the local jails. Sniff said 60,000 adults were processed through the county system last year. Under AB 109, violent offenders and sex offenders who are found guilty are sent to state prison, but now lower-level offenders must do their time in county jail systems -- a strategy designed to relieve state prison overcrowding.

Between Riverside County's five jails, there is currently a total of 4,000 beds, and Sniff said he could use another 4,000. Although more money is needed to build enough housing to support the increasing inmate population, Sniff argued.

Lack of new jails and prisons across the state coupled with laws designed to increase sentences imposed on offenders have exacerbated the overpopulation problem, the sheriff said.

Under federal court order, the state must reduce its prison population to approximately 110,000 inmates across its 33 adult facilities by year's end. The plan released by the governor’s office Thursday calls for further reducing the state inmate population by 7,000, which is still 2,300 short of the court-ordered target.

Within 24 hours of submitting his plan, the governor on Friday appealed for relief from court orders. It's unclear where that will go -- in the past the U.S. Supreme Court has not been sympathetic to California's problem of inmate overload.

Michael Bien, one of the attorneys who sued over prison overcrowding, told The Associated Press the governor’s office is "kicking and screaming rather than complying with this court order. I think they're risking a contempt finding."

Friday the Chief Probation Officers of California issued a statement in support of the governor’s plan and his appeal to the court.

“We stand with the governor in his protest of the need to make further adjustments required by the order as it could negatively impact public safety,” CPOC President Chief Mack Jenkins said. “Early releases undermine the thoughtful system of reform currently in place.”

Sniff called on those gathered Thursday in Wildomar to lean on lawmakers to find a solution other than early release of convicted criminals, and he blamed AB 109 on an ongoing trend of increased property crimes and violent crimes seen statewide and in Riverside County.

“It’s like sewage dripping out there all over this state. We need your help and the board [of supervisors] is going to need your support on this for quite some time to come,” he said. “Your jail system is overcrowded here.”