San Bernardino Parole Problems

San Bernardino County lead the state in locking people up ("Cure for county ills: Universal incarceration") but the question is what does the county do when prisoners get out? Even with the substance abuse and crime prevention act helping alot of people get the rehabillitation they need, and thus keeping them out of jail, the county still can't seem to find a place for parolees, and the whole state of California is running out of space for prisoners. Overwhelmingly these parolees are economically challenged minorities in jail for non-violent drug offenses ("THE IMPACT OF THE WAR ON DRUGS ON U.S. INCARCERATION"). Where do you place these nonviolent offenders? San Bernardino City officials like Tobin Brinker, Mayor Pat Morris, said, not here anymore, when they placed a moratorium on parole housing this year.

But parolees legally have the right to live here. State law dictates that inmates are to be released to their state of origin. Because of the city's past and present high incarceration rate of poor minorities, it has a large parolee population coming back to their county of San Bernardino. Alfred Martinez, an administrator at the Department of Corrections Region IV headquarters in Diamond Bar said: "If your county is committing a lot of inmates to state prison, when they parole, they're going to come back to that county." ("Parolees a problem", 12/23/2005) This represents a broader social problem of equal representation under the rule of law. Statistically, economically challenged people are convicted on a larger scale than the well-to-do, who have the money to mount substantive legal defense, as opposed to the state provided public defender system. In addition, low level drug offenders have been subject to federal prison time with the extension of drug laws during the 1980's. Federal data shows only 11 percent of those convicted of drug charges are high level, while most are addicts trying to support their habit. Whatever the case, they are sentenced to hard time. In prison they do not receive the help they need and are released because of overcrowding and are back on the streets.

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