Orange County Criminal Attorney Blog

Over sixty prisoners in Orange County's jail had to sleep on the floor recently while they waited for beds to become available. County jails around the state are reporting difficulties handling an influx of prisoners as the state shifts many detainees out of state prisons and makes them the counties' problem. Counties are now scrambling to find room, often releasing detainees early and looking for other methods of punishment for new offenses.

A new state law that took effect October 1 made counties responsible for people convicted of certain offenses that had previously been the state's burden. The new law covers about five hundred felony offenses deemed "nonviolent, nonsexual and non-serious." It sets aside money for counties to help them bear the additional burden. The law resulted from a May ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding a lower court's order for the state of California to reduce its prison population by at least 30,000. California has one of the largest prison populations in the country, and the U.S. has one of the largest prison populations in the world. The ruling held, in part, that overcrowding in California prisons led to conditions that violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment."

Since October 1, state prisons have been transferring detainees to county jails. Many jails are now full or even overcrowded, but officials expect this to balance out over time. In an attempt to stem the inflow of detainees for new offenses, counties are looking into alternatives to incarceration. Fresno County, for example, has announced that it will no longer incarcerate people solely for parole violations. It will still put people in jail for new criminal offenses, but it is looking for alternative punishments wherever possible.

Some prosecutors and other critics of the new law allege that the sudden rise in the jail population results in part from an effort by criminal defense attorneys to delay their clients' sentencings until after October 1, to minimize the possibility of a term in state prison. The Los Angeles County district attorney has stated that he will train his prosecutors in ways that allow them to continue to charge alleged offenders with offenses allowing a state prison sentence, by digging through their criminal histories and searching for other factors that could lead to enhanced charges. Others may lobby the Legislature to pass new laws expanding the scope of state prison sentences.