REGION: Riverside County divides jail realignment pot

The impact of realignment is expected to be gradual.

Contrary to what some have suggested, the state is not throwing open the prison doors. Rather, people sentenced after September for crimes considered to be nonviolent, such as theft, drug sales and weapons violations, are being sent to jail instead of prison. As a result, prisons are projected to gradually lower populations while county jails increase.

Chief Deputy Jerry Gutierrez, who oversees Riverside County's jails for the Sheriff's Department, said the first 10 days of October provided a glimpse of how the shift is going to work out.

Through Monday, Riverside County judges sentenced 163 people to serve time behind bars, and 138 of them were directed to jail instead of prison, Gutierrez said.

"It's starting to fill beds," he said.

What's of particular concern, he said, is that several new inmates have been ordered to serve lengthy terms. One received a sentence of 14 years, 4 months; another received nine years; still another was ordered to serve six years; and three were each given five years, Gutierrez said.

When the state was touting the merits of realignment, its promoters stressed the counties would get inmates that serve terms of 3 years or less.


