Amador County – Amador County Board of Supervisors approved a $517,000 budget for the initial Community Corrections Partnership plan, which could hire seven personnel by 2013, though future funding may be dependent on passage of a Constitutional budget reform initiative.

Community Corrections Partnership administrator, Chief Probation Officer Mark Bonini said they called this the “initial” plan because of the uncertain future of funding created by AB 109, the “Public Safety Realignment Act.” The Act also sent less risky offenders to county jails, so the state could meet Supreme Court-ordered prison population numbers.

Bonini asked for a separate budget line item for “Local Community Corrections” because “we are looking at this as a task force,” so the “money coming to the county is basically sandboxed off.” He said “rainy day” money can be set aside and rolled forward into that new CCP budget.

He said seven positions in AB109 personnel have already been approved by Supervisors, including a deputy sheriff, an assistant, three probation officers, a probation supervisor and a behavioral health rehabilitation specialist. He was asking for the budget approval.

Supervisor John Plasse asked if there were any specific earmarks for the funds to go to the rainy day fund, and he noted that the hiring was staggered to 2013, and wondered if they would sock away the funds until then.

Bonini said that was the plan, and they have not yet spent any funds. The rolled over funds will be the “stop gap,” as Governor Jerry Brown tries to secure this funding with a Constitutional amendment, but they do not know how it will end.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster asked the Sheriff if he had seen serious and violent issues rise with state prisoners going to the jail. Sheriff Martin Ryan said they have confiscated “8-10 homemade weapons within the cell block in Amador County Jail, which is a first for us.” He attributed it to the “sophistication of the inmates.”

Forster asked how they would deal with an expected increase in prisoners, with limited bed space. Ryan said if they can reduce pretrial inmates, they can significantly reduce future jail population.

Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano said “if you don’t get constitutional protection, there is no guarantee you will get any of the funds.”

Ryan said it was estimated it would cost $6 million to get the initiative through. He said “the Governor can raise that kind of money. The Sheriff’s Association can’t.”

Forster said CDCR Secretary Matthew Cade announced the Corrections Department had met the court orders for its incarceration. Forster said “the shift to the counties threw most of the counties out of compliance.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.