Sheriff Bill Gore has sent a letter to local law enforcement agencies telling them that beginning Tuesday his department will no longer accept bookings of suspects accused of certain misdemeanors because the jails are nearing capacity.
The change comes seven months after a state law went into effect that allowed some lower-level felony offenders convicted of nonserious and nonviolent crimes to serve their sentences in county jail instead of prison.
Known as public safety realignment, the law was intended to help close a state budget gap and relieve prison overcrowding that the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered California lawmakers to fix by mid-2013.
Now, the crowding problem is shifting to the counties, including San Diego, where some jails are at or nearing capacity.
“We are very concerned that shifting the State’s responsibility to incarcerate felons to the local level is creating safety risks to our communities,” San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said in an email Friday.
His office prosecutes misdemeanor cases. Goldsmith blamed what he called a “dysfunctional” Legislature and governor for shifting their problems to local governments rather “than take action to cut their unnecessary spending.”
In January, Gore authorized early releases for some inmates, who were serving time on nonviolent offenses, citing an “immediate need to create bed space.”
Then, in an April 17 letter, Gore said the county’s booking criteria needed to be changed because realignment was causing the jail inmate population to swell almost to the limit.
As of Friday, 4,922 inmates were being held at seven detention facilities, according to the Sheriff’s Department website. Maximum capacity, which is set by the courts, is 5,600.
“This was a change that was always one of our strategies,” said sheriff’s Capt. Billy Duke of the department’s detentions support division.
This past Monday, the jail population included about 200 inmates who were being held on misdemeanor charges while their court cases were pending, Duke said.
Sheriff Bill Gore has sent a letter to local law enforcement agencies telling them that beginning Tuesday his department will no longer accept bookings of suspects accused of certain misdemeanors because the jails are nearing capacity.
The change comes seven months after a state law went into effect that allowed some lower-level felony offenders convicted of nonserious and nonviolent crimes to serve their sentences in county jail instead of prison.
Known as public safety realignment, the law was intended to help close a state budget gap and relieve prison overcrowding that the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered California lawmakers to fix by mid-2013.
Now, the crowding problem is shifting to the counties, including San Diego, where some jails are at or nearing capacity.
“We are very concerned that shifting the State’s responsibility to incarcerate felons to the local level is creating safety risks to our communities,” San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said in an email Friday.
His office prosecutes misdemeanor cases. Goldsmith blamed what he called a “dysfunctional” Legislature and governor for shifting their problems to local governments rather “than take action to cut their unnecessary spending.”
In January, Gore authorized early releases for some inmates, who were serving time on nonviolent offenses, citing an “immediate need to create bed space.”
Then, in an April 17 letter, Gore said the county’s booking criteria needed to be changed because realignment was causing the jail inmate population to swell almost to the limit.
As of Friday, 4,922 inmates were being held at seven detention facilities, according to the Sheriff’s Department website. Maximum capacity, which is set by the courts, is 5,600.
“This was a change that was always one of our strategies,” said sheriff’s Capt. Billy Duke of the department’s detentions support division.
This past Monday, the jail population included about 200 inmates who were being held on misdemeanor charges while their court cases were pending, Duke said.
The average length of time they spend in custody is 13 days.
Those inmates would not have been booked at all under the criteria that takes effect Tuesday, Duke said. Instead, they would be cited and notified when to appear in court.
The Sheriff’s Department would not immediately provide copies of the old and new booking criteria for comparison this week, but U-T San Diego obtained a copy of the revised rules. They show that suspected offenders will continue to be jailed for misdemeanor crimes including driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, domestic violence offenses and violations of sex offender registration requirements.
It also gives watch commanders, who serve as shift supervisors at the various law enforcement agencies, some discretion when seeking to book misdemeanor offenders.
In his April letter to police chiefs, Gore said the booking criteria was last modified in March 2010, when the county’s jail inmate population was significantly lower and more beds were available. At that time, the criteria was expanded to allow bookings on certain misdemeanor crimes and warrants that were not allowed previously.
The latest changes reflect a return to the standards in place before March 2010, with a couple of exceptions. People arrested on suspicion of annoying or molesting children or for violating probation will still to be booked into county jail until they post bail or are otherwise released.
“I don’t foresee this being a huge overall impact, but we’ll take a wait-and-see approach,” said Acting Capt. Lon Turner of the Chula Vista Police Department.
Jeff Jordon, vice president of the San Diego Police Officers Association, said his initial assessment is that the changes will have “minimal or almost no impact” on San Diego police operations.
Turner said the department books a relatively low number of misdemeanor offenders at the central jail in downtown San Diego compared to felonies.
Gore has said the department is working on custody alternatives, such as home detention and GPS monitoring, to free up space in the jails. He has said that a special unit is being installed within the department to handle the task.
Duke confirmed that the unit has been set up, and the staffing is in place. However, he said, the Sheriff’s Department is still “some time away from putting anybody out on alternative custody.”
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