California bail bonds company owners have said that the state's inmate realignment program has had a negative impact on their business.

The realignment came about in late 2011 after the US Supreme Court ordered CA prisons to reduce their inmate populations.  This caused Gov. Jerry Brown to implement a plan that transferred certain offenders from state facilities to county jails to serve out their sentences.   County jails soon began busting at the seams and many have begun releasing inmates before their sentences have concluded.  They are also releasing an increasing number of pretrial offenders on their own recognizance (OR) because they simply do not have the room to house them.

The Humboldt County Jail is among those who selects who to hold and who to OR based on how full the jail is.  Many of these defendants are being charged with misdemeanors but felons are also being let go after they promise to go to court and handle their case.  Most of the felons are women.

This spike in OR release means fewer and fewer people need to seek out the assistance of an expert bondsman. Some have said they have seen business fall off by as much as 50%.   In other cases inmates have asked their family members to wait until after their first court appearance because they are confident the judge will not hold them.

One senator reportedly said that before the realignment, many CA prisons were functioning as if they had a revolving door.  That problem has not been fixed, she said, but has instead moved it to a county level.