Last week, Sheriff Greg Munks requested the Board of Supervisors consider a request that would allow him to ship overflow inmates one county over.

The bid received unanimous approval; the two-year contract could be worth up to $3 million for Alameda County.

The contract is basically a "CYA" for the Maguire Jail.  As it stands, San Mateo detention facilities aren't overcrowded and the sheriff doesn't see that changing in the near future.

Essentially, it's an insurance policy; a "just in case" measure that would allow inmates at the Maguire Jail to be sent to Dublin in the case of unforeseen circumstances.

That could span anything from a mass influx in bookings to a flood that temporarily knocks out a wing of one of San Mateo's holding facilities.

If the county does find a need to pull the proverbial trigger, convicted inmates who are ineligible for bail bonds and have longer sentences, aren't scheduled to see a doctor and don't live in East Bay will be the first to be sent over.

Although some of the supervisors asked if the sheriff would consider expanding the use of GPS devices, he doesn't seem to see that as an option.   In many cases, their home and social environments are what landed these people behind bars to begin with, he said, and sending them back to an unstructured environment could lead to them getting into more trouble.

He also believes the confinement of being in a corrections center, like the Maguire Jail, as opposed to sitting at home on a couch watching TV or playing video games, is more likely to get inmates to change their ways.

Read the full story here:  Alameda County jails could get San Mateo inmates