RIVERSIDE - Sheriff Stan Sniff received the full support of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors today to begin hiring guards and other personnel needed to staff new cell blocks at the county's Banning jail.

In a 5-0 vote, the board affirmed that the Sheriff's Department would have the $12.6 million Sniff requested to fund 142 new positions in fiscal year 2010-11, in addition to roughly $750,000 for hiring in the current fiscal year.

"We're very pleased with the board's decision,'' the sheriff told City News Service.

The expansion of the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility is expected to wrap up next month, but many of the personnel needed for security and administrative functions have yet to be hired.

Sniff warned the board twice last year -- in May and November -- that he was short of the funds necessary to hire people to work in the new facilities. But faced with a then-$50 million -- and growing -- county budget deficit, the supervisors shied away from new financial commitments.

The $12.6 million in next year's budget will assure funding to hire 45 sworn law enforcement personnel to work at the jail, 49 non-sworn correctional deputies and 48 "classified'' employees, including food service workers, clerks and accountants, according to the sheriff.

He doubted all the money that was approved would be needed and predicted the new jail units would be fully operational in 12 months.

The two-year, $80 million Smith expansion includes 582 inmate beds in three housing units encompassing 173,000 square feet.

With the pending release of some 40,000 convicted felons from state penal facilities -- in compliance with a federal judicial panel's mandate that California's prison population be reduced for health reasons -- opening the new

cells can't come a moment too soon, said Supervisors Jeff Stone and John Benoit.

"We are going to have to have the the capacity to house more dangerous criminals that we shouldn't be responsible for housing in the first place,'' Stone said, alluding to expectations that the parolees will offend again.

"We have to make our facilities function as prisons when they're detention centers,'' he said.

Sniff agreed, saying law enforcement officials statewide were preparing for a spike in crime -- and greater pressure on local resources.

:It scares all of us, with scarce resources and additional loads being dropped on us,'' he said. "The county jail is at the front end of the system. We just don't have the bed space.''

The sheriff said the county has 3,600 inmate beds available, compared to 6,000 in neighboring Orange County. Some 3,500 prisoners were released before the completion of their jail terms in 2008 due to overcrowding in the county

jail system, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Supervisor Bob Buster wondered whether talk of risks to public safety from recidivism wasn't "grossly exaggerated'' and suggested more money might be diverted to rehabilitation programs and deputies drawn from other areas to staff the jails.

Sniff replied that pulling deputies from the field would leave a gap in patrols assigned to unincorporated communities.

According to the sheriff, in the coming months, he will "laterally'' move inmates from older jail units to the new cell blocks, without realizing an immediate net gain in jail space.

The shift will instead give sheriff's officials a chance to exercise the equipment now in place at Smith, as part of a "warranty'' check to ensure all the mechanisms are functioning as promised.

"We can't just Advertisement

[ Chatton and Associates ] let that stuff sit there and not put a load on it,'' he said. "If anything is broken, it needs to be fixed by the people who supplied it.''

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Sheriff Sniff to ask Board of Supervisors to commit $12 million for staffing Banning jail

RIVERSIDE - Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff will ask the Board of Supervisors today to commit more than $12 million for staffing the new cell blocks at the county's Banning jail.

The expansion of the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility is expected to wrap up next month, but many of the personnel needed for security and administrative functions have yet to be hired.

The Sheriff's Department estimates the cost of adding the 142 positions will be $12.6 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year, and Sniff is seeking affirmation from the board that the money will be there for him to fund the new hires.

"The board wants a net increase in jail beds, but to do that we have to have a net gain in staff, all while the county's in the throes of a financial crisis,'' the sheriff told City News Service. "We'll make do with existing staff if the board wants us to.''

The two-year $80 million Smith expansion includes 582 inmate beds in three housing units encompassing 173,000 square feet.

Sniff warned the board twice last year -- in May and November -- that he was short of the funds necessary to hire people to work in the new facilities. But faced with a $50 million-and-growing budget deficit, the supervisors shied away from new financial commitments.

To make matters worse, the county was forced to offset loses incurred by the Sheriff's Department, District Attorney's Office, Probation Department and Fire Department because of a shortage of statewide Proposition 172 revenue, generated via a half-cent sales tax earmarked specifically to support public safety.

The Executive Office has indicated the county will be on the hook again for Prop 172 loses, exceeding $15 million in the current fiscal year. Unless the board decides otherwise, that money will have to be paid from the county's dwindling reserve funds, according to the Executive Office.

Sniff said he would need around $750,000 before the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year to begin reallocating departmental resources in preparation for a hiring campaign.

The $12.6 million in next year's budget would assure funding to hire 45 sworn law enforcement personnel to work at the jail, 49 non-sworn correctional deputies and 48 "classified'' employees, including food service workers, clerks and accountants, according to the sheriff.

"We're especially anxious to get started hiring the sworn people,'' Sniff said. "There's a long lead time (between hiring and posting), and I don't want to pull anymore people off the street than I have to.''

He described his current resources, after a yearlong hiring freeze, as "threadbare.''

In November, Supervisors Marion Ashley and Jeff Stone both expressed a strong desire to have the new cell blocks fully operational this spring. But Sniff said doing so would mean a major draw-down on patrol personnel.

The sheriff said the most practical approach is a phased-in opening of some new cells while shuttering older jail units, moving the inmates over and giving the county a chance to exercise the new equipment in a kind of "warranty'' check.

"We can't just let that stuff sit there and not put a load on it,'' he said. "If anything is broken, it needs to be fixed by the people who supplied it.''