12 Days til State Prisoners Become County Inmates

In exactly 12 days, the CDCR prison system will begin releasing low-level prison inmates to the custody of various California county jail systems. These changes are due to begin on October 1, 2011 as one of many efforts to help the prison overcrowding problem in our state. 

 

What This Could Mean to a Loved One

If your prison loved one is a low-level offender who is classified as a low-level CDCR prison inmate, these new changes affect your lives, specifically:

• He or she could be released from the state prison and placed in the custody of their county as early as October 1, 2011.
• If your loved one is placed in an overcrowded county jail system to serve the remainder of their time, they may be released even earlier to make room for higher level inmates.
• Your loved one will be released to the county jail probation system, instead of the infamous state prison parole system. This could help to serve your family reunification process in a few ways. Here's just three:

1. Probation rules are not as strict as parole rules. This does not mean they will be free to re-offend just because they are not on parole. It just means that the smallest mistake will not be automatic cause to be returned to the state penitentiary, like not paying a traffic ticket on time.
2. Probation systems are more lenient when it comes to career needs. They have even been known to allow non-troublemakers to travel for really good jobs, as long as they check in regularly.
3. Those who do re-offend, but commit very low-level offenses, will be sent back to the county jail, not the CA state prison. This may sound crazy, but I believe this is good for the morale of a man who just made a simple, silly mistake. He can get out soon enough to save his job, but get knocked upside the head long enough to remind him how lucky he is to have his early prison freedom.

I just wanted to post some quick thoughts on the subject of moving CA state prisoners to CA county jails. If you want more technical information on the subject, read "CDCR Changes for Low-Level Prisoners" now.

I will do my best to stay up-to-date on this topic as it unfolds. In the meantime, here's a short, informative blog on the subject. Check it out."CDCR Changes for Low-Level Prisoners"