September 2011
Sara Wakefield, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, was quoted in a recent Orange County Register article. A plan, known as "realignment," to transfer felons to county jails, rather than state prisons because of budget cuts, including the cost of probation officers, is being implemented. To prevent crowding in already crowded jails, the realignment plan is reliant on alternatives other than incarceration, such as using GPS monitoring, home confinement and rehabilitation programs. County budget cuts have reduced many of those programs. "I don't get a sense there's a real investment in (rehabilitative) programs," said Wakefield. "Rehabilitation is an active process, not just, 'Let's not watch people.'"