Community input needed for panel on low-level felonies
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (4/8/2021) – The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors is seeking residents who want to help reduce low-level felony crime in the county.
The Community-Based Organization (CBO) representative would serve on the county Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) for the remainder of the year. CBO applicants should have experience in community-based rehabilitative services for criminal offenders.
In 2011, the California Legislature passed realignment legislation addressing public safety. AB 109 transferred responsibility for supervising and housing individuals convicted of certain low-level felonies to counties and tasked county government with developing a new approach to reducing future involvement in criminal activity for this population.
Major changes
The major changes to the local criminal justice system include:
- Incarceration of people convicted of certain low-level felonies (specified non-violent, non-serious, non-sex offenses) to terms in local county jails, instead of state prisons, possibly followed by a mandatory term of supervision by probation.
- County supervision by probation, instead of state parole, of people convicted of these low-level felonies after release from state prison under a new category of supervision called Post-Release Community Supervision (PRCS).
- Incarceration of individuals in local jails, instead of state prison, for violations and revocations of both parole supervision and PRCS.
In addition to the CBO representative, the 14-member CCP consists of:
- Chief probation officer (chair).
- Presiding judge or designee.
- County supervisor, county administrative officer or a designee of the Board of Supervisors.
- District attorney.
- Public defender.
- Sheriff.
- Chief of police.
- Head of the county Department of Social Services.
- Head of the county Department of Mental Health.
- Head of the county Department of Employment.
- Head of the county alcohol and substance abuse programs.
- Head of the county Office of Education.
- Victims’ representative.
Members serve without compensation, stipends or reimbursement of expenses. The CCP is expected to meet on a quarterly basis.
Application deadline is May 10. The Board of Supervisors’ Public Protection Committee will interview applicants in May and forward a nomination to the full board.
Obtain a form by calling 925-655-2000 or visiting contracosta.ca.gov/3418/. Completed applications can be submitted online, emailed to ClerkoftheBoard@cob.cccounty.us or mailed to Clerk of the Board of Supervisors Office at 1025 Escobar St., 1st Floor, Martinez, CA 94553.
Bev Britton
Bev Britton graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Dakota and moved to the Bay Area with her soon-to-be husband Jim in 1986. She was features editor at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek before becoming managing editor of the Contra Costa Sun in Lafayette in 1995. She retired from newsrooms in 2001, but an ad for the Clayton Pioneer drew her back in. The family moved to Lake Wildwood in the Gold Country a few years ago - but working at the Pioneer keeps her in touch with her old neighborhoods in Concord and Clayton.