The California prison realignment program took effect in October 2011, and shortly after, San Diego County began a program through the Center for Employment Opportunity that is helping former prison and jail inmates find jobs and transition to life post-incarceration. The program marked its one-year anniversary December 5, and celebrated its efforts to keep inmates from crowding the San Diego County Jail, Fox reported.

The article said the county is now responsible for a much larger number of inmates than before prison realignment went into place. San Diego Chief of the Probation Department Mack Jenkins told Fox that about 2,500 additional inmates came to the county as a result of realignment.

Mindy Tarlow, who runs the Center for Employment Opportunity, told the news source the county program connects with inmates early to engage with them "as close to their conviction or release as possible." The program provides employment skill training and offers participants jobs in preparation for them to one day have a full-time position in the private sector.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said helping former inmates make the transition from being locked up to life back in the community is essential to keeping them from recommitting crimes and getting sent back to jail.

“I know that the only way to put a stop to the revolving door of prison back home and back to prison is to give people the tools to turn their lives around,” she said.

Former inmates also told the news source the program was helpful for them. Participant Michael Garror said he is now a better asset to his community and society than he was before.

CBS reported that the program in San Diego has placed more than 50 high-risk former inmates into stable, full-time jobs.

Participants praise program
"This program has dedicated staff that has set goals to find gainful full-time employment for everyone, and I was one of the fortunate ones that they have found it for and I am most grateful," said a former inmate, Michael Craig, who now has a full-time job thanks to the program and the efforts of his parole officer.

Former criminals are happy to stay in society and out of the San Diego County Jail, according to a letter sent to the San Diego Union-Tribune by a county jail inmate. The man said not only has the realignment program put public safety at risk by sending criminals out into society on probation instead of keeping them locked up, but it has also impacted the inmates.

"Since the law[']s implementation, the conditions in the county jails here deteriorated greatly," he wrote to the news source. "The overcrowding has lead to increased violence and unsanitary living conditions."

The man wrote that the jail's plumbing system cannot handle the added stress of the additional inmates, causing it to back up on the floor of jail cells. The conditions are worse than the state prisons, he said, and the facilities are not created to hold inmates for extended periods of time.

To avoid spending any more time than necessary in jail or prison, arrested individuals can contact a California bail bondsman to learn about payment plans and other aspects of the California bail bond process.