Op-Ed: California – Funding of new “Criminal Justice Realignment” is based on wrong criteria

Op-Ed: California – Funding of new “Criminal Justice Realignment” is based on wrong criteria Posted: 08/14/2011 01:30:08 AM PDT W. David Ball As the state rolls out AB 109 criminal justice realignment, it is giving counties money to implement the plan. Allocations are based on counties’ current usage of prison, so, for example, Santa Cruz County is getting $1.66 million in funds, and San Luis Obispo County is getting $2.2 million. But what if counties’ current usage of prison is unjustified? Put another way, if certain counties have chosen to use prison, why should the state pay them for this choice? A new study I authored, “Tough on Crime on the State’s Dime” looks at counties’ usage of prison from 2000-2009 and concludes that counties have used prison at widely different rates, and that this difference is not explained by violent crime. The group of counties that used prison the most during the study had below average violent crime rates. This has real ramifications for how we view the allocation of realignment dollars. Continue reading: Op-Ed: California – Funding of new “Criminal Justice Realignment” is based on wrong criteria

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Op-Ed: California – Funding of new “Criminal Justice Realignment” is based on wrong criteria

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