Officials in Orange County say they will likely expand their efforts to keep former inmates from committing new crimes once they are released.

This is all part of California's efforts to cut inmate populations at both prisons and the county jails.  Inmate overcrowding has long been a problem for the Golden State, according to sources, and it's gotten to the point where the Supreme Court has found it unconstitutional.  The justices went so far as to order CA to reduce their prisoner population to no more than 137.5 percent of rated capacity.

Prisons weren't prepared to simply open the floodgates for pre-term release, so instead, they began shifting certain inmates to serve their sentences at county-based detention centers.

Sheriff's departments throughout the state say this has caused a whole slew of problems, especially since many feel they're not receiving adequate funding to offset all their new costs.   And since this has started to cause jail crowing at the local levels, many lower-level inmates are being released before their sentences are up.

Some members of law enforcement have said this has led to a spike in things like burglary, car thefts and other types of property crime.

Orange County Jail officials are hopeful that if a greater focus is placed on providing programs geared toward reducing recidivism, such as mental health treatment, drug treatment and others, this will help reduce the chances that released inmates will commit new crimes.

If the measure is approved by the County Board of Supervisors, they will let Sacramento know they'd like to distribute half a million dollars to non-government groups to get the ball rolling.

Read the full story here:  Crime prevention may be ramped-up by county