LAKE COUNTY ? Lake County Jail staff will recalculate sentences for about 48 inmates to learn whether any of them qualify for an early release law that took effect Monday. If they do, some inmates could leave this week.
The law does not apply to inmates who have to register as sex offenders, those convicted of serious felonies or who have prior violent felonies, Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff”s Office said.
Lake County Jail administrators are waiting on California Attorney General guidelines on how to apply new jail sentence credit calculations, Bauman said. He said he expects not all 48 inmates will have early release dates and that they won”t all be released at once. He thinks about 20 inmates will have new release dates.
“We”re doing this to comply with the law,” Bauman said.
California jails and prisons started Monday to reduce their populations by about 6,500 inmates during the next year under a state law that was signed as part of last year”s state budget package, according to an Associated Press report. Under the law, early release credits for inmates who complete educational and vocational programs will be expanded, letting more inmates leave prison earlier. At the same time, the state will stop its monitoring of low-level offenders after their release to allow parole agents to focus on more dangerous ex-convicts. That is designed to reduce the number of parolees returned to prison, essentially because the state will not know if they are violating the terms of their parole.
Contact Katy Sweeny at ksweeny@record-bee.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
