Jail population expected to double in 4 years

Under realignment, people convicted of non-serious, non-violent and non-sex crimes as well as parole violators, go to county jails  instead of state prison. It is part of California’s effort to abide by a federal court order to reduce its prison population.

“The projections by the [state] is that we will have an additional 360 inmates in our facility in three to four years. So we’re doubling our number of inmates without a capacity to do so,” Robinson said. “We’re in dire need of putting some funding toward building out our facility to make sure that we can keep the community as safe as possible by keeping those inmates locked up who need to be locked up.”

The Kings County Jail is rated for 361 inmates, but bunk beds have been added to increase the capacity to 487 to accommodate an increase in inmates who otherwise would have been in state prison.

But the inmate population is growing rather quickly. As of Monday morning, the county jail had 421 inmates, Robinson said. 

County leaders are seeking $33 million from the state to help pay for the long-awaited jail expansion. It’s the county’s latest attempt to secure funding for the project, which would add 252 beds to the existing jail.

The jail annex is estimated to cost $44 million, but Robinson remains optimistic that the county could somehow come up with the difference to bring the project to fruition.

A preliminary decision on the funding is expected to be issued by mid February, and a final decision by March.

Meanwhile, the county is struggling to keep the jail population under control and minimize early releases.

Robinson says his department has been successful in doing that so far by having more and more convicts serve their time from home under a program that tags them with GPS ankle monitors.

As a result, Kings County has had only 31 early releases as of Dec. 31 this fiscal year, compared to 452 last year and 943 in 2009, Robinson said.

But it is only a matter of time before these gains disappear, as more state prison inmates arrive, he said.

“If we don’t have room for inmates, what do we do with them? We release them. It’s unfortunate,” Robinson told the Hanford City Council at a recent meeting.

Jail overcrowding is not a new issue, but alignment adds to the jail woes facing the county. When the new jail opened in 2007, it was immediately overcrowded. With realignment, the county has added 126 bunk beds to day rooms.

“That creates a dynamic, because then you have more inmates in the day rooms that need direct supervision,” Robinson said. “Criminals in custody generally still do the same thing they did on the streets.”

 It also prompted several complaints from inmates regarding health and safety concerns. Some female inmates called The Sentinel to complain that a jail cage located in a day room blocks access to a fire exit.

In response, Robinson said the complaint is misleading because no inmate is allowed to leave the facility in the first place.

“The access is blocked anyway because they are inmates in secure cells. All we added was another layer that staff members would be required to open the door to let them out — no different than the cells they were previously in,” Robinson said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2429 or eyamashita@HanfordSentinel.com.