Criminal Justice Case Summary

CASE STUDY – Page 1 of 2

KERN COUNTY’S VIRTUAL JAIL
SUMMARY When California’s Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011 became law last year, Kern County, CA, was faced with a significant increase in the number of offenders to be supervised by the Sheriff’s Office or housed in one of its four existing jails. At full implementation of the Act, projections were over 2,000 additional offenders. They built a “Virtual Jail” system around the idea of reliable, innovative electronic monitoring technology that will keep offenders accountable, promote community safety and save taxpayer dollars.

“We have an excess of inmates, and we have to figure out how to manage them.” “Either we put inmates out and they’re free, or we have a system that gives
Supreme Court ruling that required California to reduce the population in state prisons. California lawmakers responded with the Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, also known as AB109. One of the most significant changes has been the dramatic impact on California’s county jails, originally intended for less serious offenders with sentences of less than a year. Now, some people who would have previously gone to state prison will go to county jail even if their sentence is longer than 12 months. Under California’s realignment, individuals convicted of non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual crimes (referred to as “non-non-nons”) will now serve their time in county jail instead of prison no matter how long the sentence is, as long as they do not have any serious or violent prior convictions. No one will be released early because of realignment. Before realignment, everyone released from state prison was placed on state parole and supervised by the parole department. Now, some offenders will continue to be released on parole, and others can be released on “Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS).” This program, unlike parole, will be administered and paid for by the county probation department. Compliance with the law means significant change”, says Kern County’s
“We know we’re going to run out of bed space, and we have to reduce the prison population. Based on our situation, we can forecast what is going to be inevitable. We need a new way to manage our prison population.” Kern County’s Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011 Implementation Plan notes that 1,040 offenders are expected to be on PRCS when reform is fully implemented. An additional 1,019 offenders will no longer be eligible for a state prison sentence and will be managed by the county. While courts have several sentencing options, it is believed that the vast majority of these offenders will receive some sort of supervision status. The approximately 2,000 additional offenders to be managed by Kern County nearly doubles its existing offender population. To cope with this change, Kern’s Sheriff’s Office is in the early stages of creating a Virtual Jail program that combines electronic monitoring with treatment programs for substance abuse or other issues. SOLUTION The county contracted with Rocky Mountain Offender Management Systems (RMOMS), which provides Kern County with state-of-the-art monitoring devices from Gryphex that can switch easily from Radio Frequency to GPS tracking and back, all within one device. “We combine world-class, industry-leading hosting services with cuttingedge technology and hardware to give our partners the most effective