Crime Up In The IE

Crime is on the rise in the Inland Empire

Some officials cite prisoner realignment as factor

[email=beatriz.valenzuela@inlandnewspapers.com;gregory.cappis@redlandsdailyfacts.com?subject=San Bernardino County Sun:]Beatriz E. Valenzuela and Gregg Cappis, Staff Writers dailybulletin.com[/email]

Posted:   06/15/2013 05:27:36 PM PDT





Crime in many Inland Empire cities - from Pomona to Redlands - has shot up in the last year, and some agencies say it's a result of California's Prison Realignment Plan.
"One likely reason for a rise in crime and disorder is that counties and cities, such as Redlands, are seeing the result of the state's (Assembly Bill) 109 prisoner realignment, which is releasing more unsupervised offenders to the cities where local law enforcement is forced to deal with them even as local resources remain scarce," said Redlands police spokesman.
Gov. Jerry Brown's Prison Realignment Plan went into effect on Oct. 1, 2011, as a way of reducing the state's prison population.
A federal three-judge panel ruled the overcrowded conditions in the California prison system was directly contributing to a lack of adequate medical care for inmates.
The realignment plan allowed lower-level incarcerated inmates who were going to be paroled anyway to either be released to county probation departments for supervision or remain with the state parole agency.
The city of Redlands has seen a more than 17 percent jump in Part 1 - or violent - crimes in 2011 and 2012 with the largest increases coming from arson and aggravated assault.
However, Baker said the rise in arson may have to do with better data collection and reporting and better detection of arson due to investigator training and response to incidents, rather than an actual increase in arson.
Part
1 crimes include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson and grand theft auto.
Officials at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, though, take exception to the idea the crime increase can be directly attributed to AB 109.
"It is too early to attribute any local increases in crime to public safety realignment," said Dana Simas, spokeswoman for the CDCR. "It is also important to weigh the impact of other possible influences on the crime rate, including the economy, law enforcement staffing and demographic changes."
Authorities also point out that anyone released from prison to community supervision through county probation departments are, in fact, supervised.
Pomona has also experienced an overall increase in part 1 crimes, initial FBI crime stats indicate.
According to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January-June 2012, the most current numbers available from the federal agency, in the first six months of 2011, Pomona saw 8 homicides. That number increased to 11 for the period in 2012.
Pomona, like many other cities, saw vehicle thefts increase dramatically with a rise of more than 23 percent, according to the preliminary report.
There was a 16 percent increase in robberies in Pomona, FBI crime statistics show.
Calls to the Pomona Police Department on the increase in crime were not returned.
San Bernardino saw a dramatic increase in overall crime. It jumped 21.41 percent with a nearly 9 percent rise in Part 1 crimes, according to numbers from the Police Department. The largest increase, 64 percent, were in vehicle thefts.
The city's second most dramatic jump was in homicides. There were 30 homicides in 2011. That number rose to 47 last year.
"Homicides are for the most part unpredictable in one sense, said San Bernardino police Lt. Brian Tully.
There are many factors that go into why a homicide takes place, he said.
"It all depends on each individual case," he said. "Some are gang related and dealing with turf or drug wars. Others are crimes of passion."
Tully feels AB 109 is a factor in his city's crime increase because police have arrested dozens of AB 109 probationers, but he also says it's not the sole or even main reason behind the rise.
"It's really hard to say why crime increases," Tully said. "There are just so many factors like the economy. Many of the people we arrest are either unemployed or under-employed."
But he did point out there is a correlation between AB 109 probationers and property crimes.
The local crime statistics seem to follow the national trend.
New crime statistics from the FBI shows the beginning of 2012 saw a slight increase in violent crime across the country with the highest jump in the West.
According to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January-June 2012, the most current numbers available from the federal agency, the number of violent crimes reported by law enforcement for the first six months of 2012 increased 1.9 percent compared with the same period in 2011. Property crimes also rose 1.5 percent nationally overall.
Some cities, though, saw a drop in violent crimes in 2012.
Apple Valley, Twenty Nine Palms, unincorporated areas of the High Desert and the Big Bear Lake area, to name a few, have seen a decrease in violent crimes, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
Unlike the national trend, though, many area cities, including Fontana, Victorville, Adelanto and Highland, saw double-digit drops in property crimes.
FBI statistics show Ontario had a slight decrease in violent crimes reported in the first six months of 2012 from the same period in 2011.
"Anecdotally, it's easy to to look at AB 109," said Chris Condon, spokesman for the county Probation Department. "Some of the factors to consider is was it the actual AB 109 offender population or is it because now our jail beds are now full of...offenders that we cannot detain them and they're the ones committing the crimes."
Redlands Police Chief Mark Garcia, though, says in his city, AB 109 probationers, who are on what is called Post-Release Community Supervision, are committing the crimes.
"They're not the only ones committing crimes, of course, but we can track a large number of our crime increase to the PRCS-ers," he said.
While some argue the role of AB 109 probationers on crime, Condon says one group under the prison realignment legislation can be adding to crime.
Under the sentencing portion of Penal Code 1170 of AB 109, those convicted of lower-level crimes can serve time in local jails and then be released without any supervision.
Under PC 1170, people have the option of serving their entire sentence behind bars or serving half the term in county jail and the remaining time under probation supervision.
Due to the overcrowded conditions at local jails as a result of AB 109, many people have learned they can opt to serve their whole term behind bars knowing they have a good chance of being released early from county jail, Condon said.
"I think that population, not supervised, can have a profound impact on public safety and the criminal justice system," he said.