LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Changes in state law and correctional realignment have had broad impacts on communities around California, some in ways that one might not expect.
Here in Lake County, in one example, the changes haven't worked out too well for Lake County Animal Care and Control.
The inmates who don’t cause any problems while locked up have been valuable in the care and disposition of the estimated 4,000 animals that pass through the shelter annually.
Now, however, with the jail full, the inmates who have been a source of assistance at the shelter are being given early release in exchange for good behavior, according to William Davidson, director of Lake County Animal Care & Control since November 2008.
“We can’t get the inmates we used to get because of the new laws for early release,” said Davidson.
Davidson said that because of those changes, the inmates who are left at the jail are of a higher classification – in other words, involved in more serious crimes – and therefore not as well suited to the needs of his agency.
These inmates, said Davidson, “are a pretty good source of labor, but they require a lot of supervision.”
Compounding the situation is that the staff members who supervise the inmates aren't trained to interact with these harder inmate cases.
“These are basically minimum-wage employees who get hired here thinking they’re going to be cleaning cages and feeding and not only have their own jobs to do, but now they’re supposed to be in charge of felons,” said Davidson.
Davidson and new Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin briefed the Board of Supervisors about the issue earlier this year.
“The supervisors wanted us to talk about it,” said Davidson, who was told the situation was “unacceptable” and that he needed to talk to Martin “to try to figure out something.”
“The supervisors told me that the whole reason (the Animal Care and Control) facility was built next to the jail was so that we could get more labor,” Davidson added.
The Board of Supervisors, said Davidson, has always viewed inmate labor as free labor. However, he noted, “It’s not as simple as it sounds.”
The jail is located at 4913 Helbush Drive, the animal shelter at 4949 Helbush in north Lakeport.
Up until 2007, when the shelter were located in a more centralized area of town, Davidson said, there was a smoother transition in getting inmates to work at the shelter.
“When we were on the (Todd Road) hill we were receiving inmates from the jail every day,” he said.
Getting inmates regularly to work at the shelter continued up until about halfway through former Sheriff Frank Rivero's term, Davidson said, following an inmate walking away from a work crew.
At that point, he said he was told that the only way inmates could work at the shelter was to have them supervised by correctional officers, at a high cost to Animal Care and Control. Davidson was told that it would be as much as $40 per correctional officer per hour to monitor the inmates.
So the program was halted two and a half years ago, at least partly on account of the prohibitive costs of keeping it operating, he said.
“Then when Sheriff Martin came on board he said, ‘OK, we’re going to do it again,’” said Davidson.
Martin said that based on his review, he also was concerned that the kinds of inmates now at the jail were far different than before, when people would be serving jail time for drunk driving or bouncing checks. Now, there are many more sophisticated, career criminals.
He said now the jail has people serving long-term sentences. In one such case, an inmate is serving a 16-year sentence.
“It’s always been a balance of risk versus reward,” with the risk greater now, said Martin.
He said the concerns now include the fact that inmates who regularly work at Animal Care and Control develop a routine, and so can arrange meetings or to pick up or drop off contraband.
Inmates are still going out on other work details – such as clearing brush and debris. In those cases, they are not going to the same places every day, making it harder for those kinds of arrangements for meetings to be made, Martin said.
“The risk of sending them over to animal control, it’s beyond what we can accept,” Martin said.
When the animal shelter first was built close to the jail with getting inmate labor in mind, it worked. “It was great for the time we were living in then, but times have changed,” Martin said.
Another concern is that the shelter also has its own vet clinic now, where there are medications – including opiates – as well as syringes and other tools that inmates might try to take, Martin and Davidson pointed out.
Both Davidson and Martin see part of the solution to restoring animal care as an inmate function may be contracting with Mendo-Lake Alternative Services, “and then the alternative work program supervised through the sheriff’s office can send people here to work as well,” Davidson said.
“We would be better served by having the probationers from the Mendo-Lake Alternative Services,” he added. “I have been able to set up an account with them and they will send us probationers to work here.
“We haven’t received anyone yet, but we’re ready, willing and able and waiting for someone to send us someone,” Davidson said.
Davidson said Animal Care and Control also has volunteers.
“We have some, we don’t have a lot,” he said, estimating that the number now stands at 12.
Most of the people who volunteer at the shelter come to work with the animals, whether it’s walking and playing with dogs or doing animal socialization, he said.
“We try to accommodate that,” he said, adding that those volunteers generally aren’t asked to clean cages and dishes.
Elizabeth Larson contributed to this report.
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Changes in law reduces inmate labor available to county animal shelter
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