BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — As of now, Kern County jails do not have enough beds to house all the criminal suspects coming in, forcing them to release them in 24 hours or less. A community meeting was held for suggestions.
The City of Bakersfield needs the community's help to solve a long standing problem. Simply stated, there aren't enough beds at the Lerdo jail to hold suspects. The city is asking citizens for their ideas on how to solve this.
Lerdo Jail, which opened in 2018 was originally able to hold a little more than 800 inmates. Now it can hold close to 2200 inmates throughout their three facilities. But the jail is over capacity and community members are trying to find a solution to their early release issue.
Zack Bashirtash Ward 6 Councilmember said "What we know we need is more space. That's why it's called the jail bed task force. We need more space, people are continuing to offend and offend. They can't be slowed down in time for the wonderful programs we have in Bakersfield to meet with them to get them the help they need so they aren't being a terror on our community anymore."
Community members suggested using methods that could help inmates who are drug offenders to the one year in and one year out program. Allowing them to sober up, so they can rejoin society. TJ Esposito says he found himself behind bars before that program helped him turn his life around.
TJ Esposito Downtown Business Owner & Community Member said "What needs to happen is we need to keep people long enough to sober up. Then get them to court to answer to a judge, get them clean and sober through their sentence to county. Then move on to programs like Bakersfield Rescue Mission then transition back into society."
Kern County currently has several jails closed, which some say, is part of the problem.
"History has taught us, 40 years ago this wasn't an issue, now it is so whats changing in these last 40 years? We've closed our prisons. We relaxed our accountability system and justice system. We are not holding people accountable for destroying communities and destroying peoples lives." said Bashirtash
Community leaders weren't able to come up with a solution during Wednesday's meeting, but they plan on putting some suggestions into motion, including reaching out to the Supreme Court judge and see if it's allowed to send inmates to nearby cities if they have jail beds available.
"Don't get tired and don't get desensitized. We are working on fixing this, this is not the new norm. This is not how our community should look or function. We are going to fight to get it back on track so the future generations have something to look forward too." said Bashirtash
The city wants to find workable solutions to create more jail bed availability in our community.
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