The U.S. Supreme Court’s June order for California to release 10,000 prisoners by the end of the year – citing the state’s prison overcrowding as a violation of the 8th Amendment – has left Gilroy police balking at the thought of thousands of convicts being dumped on the streets.
“We do not want them released into our community,” said Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner. “That would be a nightmare.”
Turner said the early release of that many prisoners would give way to a rise in violent crime.
Coupled with the Governor’s 2011 Public Safety Realignment Program, which helped to reduce the state prison population by about 24,925 by assigning low-level felons to county jails and community supervision rather than state parole, the release of another 9,600 inmates would be a disaster for communities like Gilroy, Turner said.
If the Supreme Court denies Brown’s appeal, and his legislation to relocate prisoners rather than release them, Turner said the Gilroy Police Department would keep a list of names of those who are let loose, and spend an “enormous” amount of resources tracking those people.
The Public Safety Realignment Program – known to some as AB-109 – has already placed 47 early release convicts in Gilroy, Turner said. The GPD spends much of its time checking on, citing, and arresting these individuals, many of whom have no conditions of release, according to Turner.
“It makes sense for us to use our scarce resources to track these people, just like we work hot spots for crime,” she said. “These individuals are what you would call ‘frequent fliers.’”
Of the 47 AB-109 convicts, nine of them have been arrested two or more times since their release, according to Turner. One has been arrested 10 times, another one, seven. The GPD has had contact with all but six of the felons since their discharge.
Turner said the GPD is essentially babysitting people who should be in prison.
“It has put bad characters back on the streets,” she said.
If the state winds up forced to release the 9,600 convicts necessary to bring prison capacities to 137 percent – an 8 percent reduction from current levels as the Supreme Court has ruled – no one could say they went down without a fight.
Embroiled in a year-long battle with the federal government, California Gov. Jerry Brown has stood firm in his resistance to letting any convicts free, sparking outcry from human rights activists around the country.
With prison population at 119,213 – down from 170,000, the state’s all-time high seven years ago – Brown claimed that overcrowding has been ameliorated, in a proclamation he signed in July.
“Whereas, due to the measures the State has taken to alleviate prison crowding, it is now clear that the circumstance that gave rise to the emergency no longer exist,” he wrote.
In 2006, according to the proclamation, prisoners slept in gymnasiums, overloaded the sewer systems and posed a safety risk for inmates and staff. But such problems no longer exist, Brown insists.
The Dec. 31 deadline for the order is creeping closer by the day, so although Brown filed an appeal, he must come up with a plan to comply.
In a conference Aug. 28, he proposed legislation that would allocate $315 million from the state’s coffers to expand prison capacity by leasing space in county jails and out-of-state prisons. The legislation would also halt the proposed closure of a state prison in Norco in Riverside County.
“This legislation will protect public safety and give us time to work with public officials and interested parties to make thoughtful changes in the overall criminal justice system,” Brown said.
Jeffrey Callison, press secretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, says the Supreme Court is butting into California’s turf and is denying the state’s right to manage their own prison system.
“The plan is to not release prisoners. We’re drafting legislation to avoid that,” Callison said.
Still, if the court rejects the legislation and orders California to release its 10,000 prisoners, Callison acknowledged the state will have to batten down the hatches and deal with it.
Turner applauds Brown’s stance.
“Keep them in jail somewhere, keep them in space in other states,” she said. “We are all taking a very strong stance that they don’t release these inmates. We can’t deal with the impact on our local community.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has denounced Brown’s circumventing of Supreme Court ruling as they push for more low-offending prisoners to be set free.
“For years, Sacramento has rejected even the most modest cost effective proposals that would reduce population with no impact to public safety. Now, Brown proposes exhausting the small savings we finally have after the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression to buy and staff more prison beds,” wrote Shanelle Matthews, press officer for the ACLU. “Instead, the state should implement long overdue reforms that will safely reduce the prison population, and use state tax dollars to further improve public safety by funding education and health services.”
But Turner says that criminals are highly likely to reoffend. She pointed to the “several” convicts released by AB-109 who were put in prison from two major Gilroy investigations – Operation Garlic Press and Operation Royal Flush, which brought in 150 arrests, according to Turner.
“We have had continuing issues with them, which is unfortunate,” she said. “If they were still locked up, we wouldn’t be dealing with them now.”
