The choices are new jail beds or alternative sentencing and rehabilitation programs. And by a 4-to-3 vote, a board that includes the sheriff, district attorney, public defender and other local officials chose to put about half that money into new jail beds. The county's chief probation officer, Don Meyer, says realignment is supposed to decrease the number of repeat offenders:
Meyer: "And it's clear that incarceration does not do that. And then I think that even the sheriff and everybody that voted yes on it, they get the part about you need to have the treatment programs. But they really were concerned there weren't enough available beds."
The rest of the money will fund rehabilitation programs and expand the sheriff's electronic home monitoring program.
