News

It seems San Mateo County will become home to a new jail, despite public opposition to the plan. On September 25, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $1.8 billion 2012-13 fiscal year budget that included funding to start building the new facility in Redwood City.

The board allocated $44 million in the budget to pay for the first phase of construction on the jail. More than 100 people attended the recent board meeting and public testimony in opposition to the facility lasted more than 2 hours, KTVU reported. People chanted "no jail," and had signs that …

A consultancy firm hired by San Mateo County has been fired after investigating how the county  handles the flow of criminals into the local jail - information, the Mercury News reported, that may have downplayed the need for the county to build a new jail, which it has set aside funding to do.

County officials had hired the firm, the Institute for Law and Policy Planning (ILPP), to evaluate the "Achieve 180" program aimed at integrating prisoners back into the community. ILPP representatives working with the county had recently requested additional inmate information and, shortly after, San Mateo County officials …

October 1 will be the one-year anniversary of the California realignment plan, which transfers low-level criminals from prisons to county jails in an effort to alleviate the state's longtime struggle with prison overcrowding.

However, the state has not adopted enough reforms of the correctional system to make the realignment program successful during its first year, a report from the American Civil Liberties Union of California stated, according to a Bay City News article. Too much of the burden has been placed on county law enforcement agencies and not enough funding is being provided for inmate rehabilitation services, the ACLU determined.

While …

In an effort to ease overcrowding in the Redwood City jail, local authorities have proposed building a new jail. However, some aren't convinced a new facility will address the problems with the county correctional system or offer much-needed rehabilitation services to inmates.

Local jails fail to provide inmates, especially those with drug or mental health issues, with the proper treatment they require. This argument was made by Manuel La Fontaine, a staff member with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, and Sharifa Wilson, former mayor of East Palo Alto, in a recent op-ed published in the Daily Journal. The county …