California's plan to reduce prison populations across the state has been shown to have negative effects on local county jails.

The state is transferring "lower-level" criminals from prisons to local jails, but county correctional officials say safety is becoming a serious concern as these seasoned inmates serve time at the local lockups, the Orange County Register reported.

The article said Orange County jails are becoming more dangerous, with inmates who pose a higher security risk and have a longer criminal background. This transformation in the county jails has been drastic and happened in just a matter of months, officials say.

Sergeant Gary Tinoco, who used to be in charge of the Orange County Sheriff's Department's inmate classification unit, said the jail is starting to "look like a prison," the OC Register reported. Inmates of jails in the county now have sentences that range up to three years, and others are parolees who have committed crimes, sending them back into custody. These parolees used to go back to state prisons, but are instead being sent to the county prisons, the article stated.

The Santa Maria Times said county jails are already "bursting at the seams" and the state's realignment program has made the situation worse. For example, as of June, the Santa Barbara County Jail had more inmates that mandated in the state plan.

There were a total of 277 assaults on jail inmates between January and the end of June of this year. In all of 2011, there were 272 assaults, the OC Register reported. Jail guards are also at risk. Through July 26 this year, 16 attacks on jail staff were recorded, compared to 18 total in 2011.

Drugs are also a problem for Orange County jails. Drugs have been found 21 times this year, including 12 incidents in which drugs were found in inmate mail, the Register reported. And the number of inmates found to have contraband is at 15, compared to six in 2011.

This can also be associated with the longer stays in the county jails. Prisoners are starting to make the jails their home, knowing they will be serving the remainder of their sentence there. This can often lead to inmates hoarding contraband in their cells and making their cells more comfortable or tolerable, according to the Register.

"If they know they are going to prison, they know they are not going to establish their home here," said Tinoco, according to the Register. "Now they know they are going to be living in Orange County. They are going to start building."