Source info (SLO News article)
This act (AB109) transfers responsibility for supervising specified lower level inmates and parolees from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to counties. In April 2011, the California Legislature and Governor Brown passed sweeping public safety legislation (AB 109) that effectively shifted responsibility for certain populations of offenders from the state to the counties. Assembly Bill 109 establishes the California Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011 which allows for current non-violent, non-serious, and non-sex offenders, who after they are released from California State prison, are to be supervised at the local County level. Instead of reporting to state parole officers, these offenders are to report to local county probation officers.
AB 109 is fashioned to meet the U.S. Supreme Court Order to reduce the prison population of the State’s 33 prisons. Noteworthy is the fact that no inmates currently in state prison will be transferred to county jails or released early. The law, effective October 1, 2011 also mandates that individuals sentenced to non‐serious, non‐violent or non‐sex offenses will serve their sentences in county jails instead of state prison.
The Post-Release Community Supervision Act of 2011 requires the County’s post-Release supervision strategy be consistent with Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) to reduce recidivism (Penal Code 3450). As a result, the Probation Department implemented and continues to strengthen its program model to be consistent with EBP research.
Benefits are:
-Reduction in recidivism
-Clean and sober lifestyle
-Connection to community resources
-Behavior modification
-Reduction of criminal thinking
-Appropriate locale – County Jail vs. State Prison
Sends people convicted of certain nonviolent, nonserious and nonsexual crimes to serve their sentences in county jails and then to county probation departments after their release from prison.
Of the 2,222 adults supervised by the San Luis Obispo County Probation Department as of June 30, about 6 percent were post-release offenders.