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| Is realignment working well? |
| By theunion.com |
| Published: 12/31/2013 |
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The Department of Corrections closed its parole office in Marysville two years ago. No big event. The parole office in Placerville permanently shut, too. Also, no big event. However, both shutdowns shifted many of their parolees to Auburn’s parole/probation office, which means more ex-cons resided in neighboring Placer County than before AB 109 or “realignment” was signed into law in 2011. It also meant many Placer County ex-cons were not visiting neighboring Nevada County just to sightsee. Realignment changed things. Realignment shifted virtually all the responsibility for monitoring, tracking, and imprisoning lower-level felons previously bound for state prison to county jails and probation. Realignment transferred responsibility for post-release supervision of state inmates to California’s counties. A criminal’s life can be a vicious circle. Released, ex-cons find out most employers won’t hire them due to their criminal backgrounds, among other reasons. The need to survive and/or thrive usually plunges an unemployable ex-con back into criminal activity — becoming involved with selling illegal drugs, for example. If ex-cons deal drugs, then they eventually are busted. Once arrested they go back to jail. They’re released and so the cycle repeats itself. The revolving door is chiefly made possible by realignment. The sad truth is low-level released criminals have increasingly been committing property crimes (robbery and auto theft). According to a December study, the Public Policy Institute of California found that property crimes were 7 to 12 percent higher in 2012 because an estimated 18,000 convicted criminals who would have otherwise been behind bars were free in this state. And with a 14.8 percent increase between 2011 and 2012, motor vehicle thefts rose the sharpest. Read More. |
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