By Megan Burks
The San Diego County Probation Department is dealing with more former prison inmates than it expected to under realignment, the state’s effort to limit prison overcrowding by shifting some offenders into local custody. Under the new strategy, parolees who would have been supervised by the state are being watched by county probation officers instead.
San Diego’s Chief Probation Officer Mack Jenkins told KPBS his department’s caseload is 25 percent higher than projections.
According to a county spokeswoman, the department has had to take on 950 post-release offenders since October. Just 3.8 percent of them, or 37, have reported living in City Heights. In November, the proportion living in City Heights was 7 percent.
About half of the post-release offenders living in the neighborhood are considered high-risk, meaning they are likely to reoffend and in the most need of intervention services.
Nonprofits and service providers hoping to help can submit their information to be included in a database used by probation officers to refer ex-offenders to needed services.