SACRAMENTO - Just a few days after Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones said the state's plan for realignment is "asinine", more than 30 other sheriffs have agreed.
Prisoner realignment, made possible by AB 109, enforces a U.S. Supreme Court mandate, which calls state prisons to reduce overcrowding. Low-level, non-violent prisoner populations will be shifted to county jails.
RELATED STORY: Sac sheriff: State realignment plan is 'asinine'
The prisoner realignment process begins Oct. 1.
"This notion about implementing an Oct. 1 deadline is asinine," Jones said last week. "There's absolutely no reason, we're not ready, it's ill-conceived."
Jones isn't opposed to realignment, but is concerned about its funding.
As of now, money is only guaranteed until July 2012.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabiltation, working with the Department of Finance, said money is available, but it's not allocated to counties past the first year.
Gov. Jerry Brown has identified funding streams, but CDCR spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the money going to counties, as of now, is temporary. However Thornton has made clear that she, nor anyone in the State, believe counties will be short-changed in the long run.
"The budget Governor Brown signed in June dedicates a portion of state sales tax and vehicle license fees directly to counties to finance realignment," Thornton said. "This funding will generate $400 million this year, growing to more than $850 million next year and more than $1 billion the following year.
Despite the high dollar figures, it's the allocation part that worries many sheriffs.
Across the state, 32 sheriffs said they were concerned with prisoner realignment.
Like Jones, several of them support pushing back the implementation deadline.
"Historically the State hasn't done well with that kind of funding," Tuolumne County Sheriff James Mele said.
"They have not identified a permanent funding stream," Placer County Undersheriff Devon Bell said. "This will carry us for nine months and then the money could disappear one, two or three years from now."
Assem. Jim Nielson, R-Gerber, said realignment should be abolished completely and then parole and prison reform work.
"It will be a public safety disaster," Neilson said. "Hundreds of thousands of Californians will be directly victimized, their person and property, because of this terrible, disastrous decision."
Despite all the concerns, a spokeswoman for Brown said realignment will go forward.
"While the governor's preferred financing mechanism was blocked by the legislature, the budget he signed in June dedicates a portion of state sales tax and vehicle license fees directly to counties that will finance realignment," said Elizabeth Ashford in a written statement.
Nevertheless, dozens of sheriffs are now calling for a time-out until permanent funding is determined.
"I don't want to wake up a year from now saying, 'I own these inmates and I don't have any money for it,'" Jones said. "That would kill our department. We very likely would have to eliminate entire patrol divisions just to be able to accommodate them."
Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin, who also represents the California State Sheriff's Association, said the counties are ready and they support Brown.
It should be noted that Pazin has recently been appointed to the Seismic Safety Commission.
By Nick Monacelli, nick@news10.net
News10/KXTV