Realignment System: California's Overcrowded Prisons

California’s overcrowded prisons are a result of one of the highest recidivism rates in the nation . In order to alleviate stress on correctional facilities and to make them efficient, public safety realignment was passed by the legislation in 2011. The act of the realignment is shifting responsibilities of most offenders from state facilities to county facilities, and the possible changing of the duration of sentences. In 2011, the courts found the overcrowding of the prisons to be unconstitutional because they were not able to fully accommodate the inmates . There is also the possibility that a new approach to addressing recidivism could yield different results. Furthermore, it is important to understand the effects of realignment on the …show more content…
The four previous options still exist, but now are administrated to different offenders. After realignment, offenders “convicted of non‐serious, non‐violent, non‐sexual crimes will now serve their time in county jail instead of prison ”, which means that the sentencing has not changed. Additionally, there are no limits on the sentence that can be served in a county jail. There also a new option called “split sentencing” that allows a judge to split the amount of time spent in a custody and under mandatory supervision, but only it is a non-violent or non-sexual crime . This not only maximizes resources, but lessens the stress on the county jails, and prevents the overuse of the prisons. It is the inclusion of mandatory supervision that separates this form of sentencing from others, which allows the use “additional monitoring conditions such as a residential treatment program, electronic monitoring or GPS, or home detention” . Mandatory supervision is another option that keeps offender out of facilities, but still under the authority of another power. Now, some inmates will be released under Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) instead of going on parole, but they must have not committed a violent or sexual crime . PRCS does have some differences with parole: it is a part of the state budget, monitored by the counties, and devote less time to supervision than those under …show more content…
Now, inmates who originally would fall under state parole will be under the jurisdiction of Post-Release Community Supervision. Additionally, felonies were redefined so any offender convicted of CA Penal Code §1170(h) cannot serve a prison sentence “unless they have a past serious or violent felony conviction” . This change in sentencing attempts to keep the prison population under control and keep the numbers of inmates as necessary basis. Furthermore, most parole violators will serve a jail sentence or some other alternative, rather than being sent back to a state facility. Realignment changes the normal procedure of where a parole would spend their time when incarcerated. All those under PRCS and parole revocations will serve “a maximum revocation sentence of 180 days” in a county jail . The parole now has limited options when sending inmates back to state facilities. In order to have even more inmates released sooner credit can be earned to be released from custody, as “jail inmates earn four days of credit for every two days served”, and can earn credit from home detention as well . Alternative punishment is also a possibility to keep county jail populations at minimum as eligible offenders can be put on electronic monitoring instead of awaiting bail . These measures also alleviate the stress on the county jails and make an