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ByGillianFlaccus TheAssociatedPress SANTA ANA Gov. Jerry Brown based his recent overhaul of the state cor- rections system in part on the idea that having those convicted of lower- level crimes supervised by county probation offi- cers instead of state pa- role agents when they are released would help them stay clean, find jobs and avoid committing new crimes. A cornerstone of the law's success is housing, yet county probation offi- cers throughout the state say homelessness contin- ues to undermine their ability to help ex-cons re- habilitate, get drug treat- ment and find jobs. Some California counties report that up to one in five of the parolees they supervise under the governor's re- alignment law is homeless. "You've got somebody and ... they're gang-in- volved, you want to get them in classes, but they live under a bridge," said Andrew Davis, an ana- lyst with the Santa Cruz County Probation Depart- ment. "They're not go- ing to show up; they don't know what day of the week it is." Counties across the state are dealing with the problem in different ways. Many are trying a patch- work of solutions as they adapt. In Marin County, pro- bation officers sometimes pick homeless parolees up at the prison gates and pay for motel rooms until they can find a bed. Santa Cruz County has contracted with local homeless shel- ters, a move that stirred controversy last year. Homeless parolees in Riverside County are re- quired to check in at an electronic kiosk and have their photo taken daily. In San Diego County, where nearly 400 former prison inmates are reporting as homeless, there's a plan to spend $3 million to add 150 shelter beds. Parolees who say they are homeless must check in weekly with probation. In Los Angeles County, where 758 convicts re- leased under realignment say they have no perma- nent address, county at- torneys are considering whether being homeless could be classified as an automatic violation of a parolee's terms of release. That's in part because many counties are find- ing that former inmates will claim homelessness to avoid close supervision. Los Angeles has spent more than $6.5 million on housing for convicts who would have previously been the responsibility of state parole. Counties say the num- ber of lower-level offend- ers — defined as those who have committed crimes that are non-serious, non- sexual and non-violent — who are homeless upon their release has not nec- essarily changed since the realignment law took ef- fect in 2011. State officials are still tallying the num- ber. The difference is that previously, these felons were the state's respon- sibility. Counties are not strangers to dealing with homeless probationers, but now the numbers have in- creased. "By and large, the speed with which this whole thing was rolled out cre- ated some challenges for everybody," said Los Ange- les County Probation Dep- uty Chief Reaver Bingham, who is forming homeless task forces in which pro- bation officers will have 20 offenders to monitor instead of 75 to 100. "We anticipated there would be a homeless pop- ulation, but how to provide services?" he said. "We had to work feverishly to put together a program to deal with it." In Riverside County, probation officials have struggled to set up long- term housing, in part be- cause of resistance from local communities, Proba- tion Chief Mark Hake said. "There's a lot of concern ... that these offenders are running the streets and it's bad for everybody's community," said Hake, who estimates up to 10 percent of new parolees are homeless. "What ev- erybody's missing is these people were coming out before, but they were just going to parole and no- body knew about them." The realignment law was passed as part of the response to federal judges who ordered a drastic re- duction in California's in- mate population. Redi- recting those convicted of lower-level offenses to county jails was intended to save space in state pris- ons while providing a mod- est savings for the state. One of the law's goals is turning around an abys- mal recidivism rate with rehabilitation programs run by local authorities, who often partner with nonprofit groups and men- tal health workers. Stable housing is critical to the success of those programs. The recidivism rate before realignment had reached 67 percent, one of the highest in the nation. "The need for housing is always very high," said Sean Becker, a housing services coordinator with Abode Services in Alam- eda County, which has a contract to provide beds for recently released state inmates. "If people have housing, they're less likely to have mental health is- sues and break the law again." That's been the case for Arthur Scott. When Scott was re- leased in March after serv- ing time on his 22nd auto theft conviction, proba- tion officials referred him to Becker's nonprofit for housing. Scott, who has never been free for more than two weeks in the past 22 years, has been liv- ing on his own for three months. He's sober, work- ing toward a janitorial cer- tificate and has a job park- ing cars at an auction lot. For him, stable housing was critical, he said. Each time he was released, he found himself homeless or in a halfway house with other men who did drugs and he would get re-ar- rested within days. "I drove a Phantom Rolls Royce yesterday. I'm getting paid to do what I love. A year ago, I would have stolen every car in that damn lot," said Scott, 51, of his new job. "That's when I realized, 'You know what? You've changed.' And I have changed." PRISON HomelessparoleesweighonCaliforniacounties HOWDEEPAREYOURROOTS? Lawns have shallow roots, so a lawn will need frequent watering at the right rate. But you don't want to wa- ter more than needed. Someofthishastodowith understanding your soil. "If you're in California Park, you're lucky to get two inches of root system," he ad- vised. "It does no good to wa- ter to six inches." Other areas may have soil where grass roots grow more deeply, perhaps up to four inches. SCREWDRIVER TEST Arm- strong is a huge proponent of the "screwdriver test." Once you think you've wa- tered well, go to various loca- tionintheyardandshovethe screwdriver into the ground. You'll note that it goes in eas- ily. His recommendation is about four inches for the tool to slide in comfortably. If it goes in only an inch or so, you need to water more. If is slides easily to the handle, you've watered too deeply. "If you see a brown spot, poke it." This might be an area where the sprinklers do not quite reach. Rather than in- crease watering for the en- tire lawn, water this one area by hand, Armstrong recom- mends. If the screwdriver test seems fine in the brown spot, you might have a fun- gal problems. KEEP THE BLADES LONG Mowing high is always im- portant, as the plants need to photosynthesize. In a drought this is even more important. You'll have less weeds as well, Armstrong said. CARE AND FEEDING People who care about their lawns sometimes do the turf a dis- service by applying fertiliz- ers at the wrong time, Arm- strong said, especially those that contain a high amount of salt. If you read "potas- sium chloride," this means salt. (Read more on Wikipe- dia here: http://goo.gl/Up- mXUZ) Fertilizers make the lawn grow, and growing increases the demand for water, at the wrong time of year. Armstrong recommends a slow-release fertilizer or or- ganic fertilizers. The best time to fertilize is in the fall. Fescues, in partic- ular, shut down over the heat of the summer. "Lawnsarebeingpushed," in summer months," when they would relax and protect themselves during the heat. Also, pushing the lawn at the wrong time of year can weaken the plants, he ex- plained. Healsorecommendsasoil test through a laboratory. AERATION AND FEEDING THE SOIL Lawns that receive a lot of use will become com- pacted. Armstrong said it's costly to rent an aerator for a small place, but if neigh- bors pitch in together they could "run the heck out of it for a day." Also, adding compost will help the health of the soil. He recommends an eighth-inch over the entire area periodically. The best combination would be aeration followed by a thin layer of compost. SEPARATE WATERING FOR GARDEN BEDS So far, this discussion has been all about lawns. Armstrong said he suggests his clients use other forms of watering for flower and plant beds, which will have different needs. Drip irrigation is best, and can be attached to one of the sprin- kler heads in an automatic system via a conservation kit, Armstrong said. Best yet is to cover the drip irrigation with mulch. "You will conserve a ton of water with that." "In the shrub bed we do a lot of hand-watering," he noted. Yet,"trees needa deep watering," and you can look up their water needs individ- ually. Armstrong noted he has seen a lot of birch trees in distress. He also discourages plant- ing redwoods, which have unreasonable water needs for this area. SPECIAL TRICKS FOR SLOPES Sloped land is tricky and water can easily run off and be wasted before watering the soil. Armstrong recom- mends a low-emitting sprin- kler, which will take a lon- ger amount of time and al- low water to seep in slowly. WATERWHILEYOUSLEEP If you have an automatic sprin- kler, the best time to water is 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. he said. Never water in the middle of the day. Contact reporter Heather Hacking at 896-7758. Water FROM PAGE 1 NOAHBERGER—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Arthur Scott, who was paroled in March 2014a er serving time on his 22nd auto the conviction, attends a Goodwill Industries custodial skills training class on Tuesday in Oakland. ROGELIO V. SOLIS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Supporters of Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., break into cheer as he is declared the winner in the primary runoff for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate at his victory party in Jackson, Miss., in June. By Emily Wagster Pettus The Associated Press JACKSON, MISS. Chris McDaniel has presented no evidence to support his claim that voter fraud pushed Senate incumbent Thad Cochran to victory in Mississippi's GOP runoff. And without evidence, the tea party-backed hopeful is going to have a tough time overturning Cochran's nearly 6,800-vote win. But a week after the balloting, McDaniel isn't giving up. McDaniel spokesman Noel Fritsch said Tuesday that the campaign contin- ues to examine poll books for possible examples of crossover voting that is prohibited by state law — people who voted in both the Democratic primary June 3 and the Republi- can runoff June 24. "We haven't deter- mined our specific legal recourse," Fritsch said. "We're kind of in a hold- ing pattern, to a certain degree, while we're col- lecting evidence." Mississippi voters don't register by party. State law says the only people banned from voting in the June 24 Republican run- off were those who voted in the June 3 Democratic primary. McDaniel and his tea party patrons insist that Democrats — most are black in Mississippi — who voted in the runoff and helped propel Co- chran to victory violated the crossover voting law. Some also are claiming that the Democratic Co- chran supporters are now required to vote for Co- chran in the general elec- tion. A court ruled that policy unenforceable. And McDaniel himself hasn't committed to supporting Cochran. Mainstream Republi- cans have disavowed Mc- Daniel's complaints about Democrats voting in a Re- publican contest at a time when the GOP is strug- gling nationally to ex- pand its traditional base of white voters. And some of the groups that spent millions sup- porting McDaniel have walked away. The Club for Growth, which spent more than $3.1 million to help McDaniel, quickly congratulated Cochran as the winner and moved on. It's baffling to Cochran supporter Clarke Reed. "Every primary I re- member, the 50 years I've been around, the guy con- cedes," said Reed, 86, of Greenville, who chaired the state GOP from 1966 to 1976. McDaniel not giving up GOP runoff against Cochran POLITICS Joseph"Joe"FrederickBonds, age 90, passed away peace- fully in Red Bluff, California on May 30, 2014. Joe was born near Bowers Cave, California on December 5, 1923 to Frederick W. Bonds and Viola Rhoan Bonds. Joe was a direct descendant of Chief Tenaya of Yosemite. He became a member of the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians. A Memorial Service will be held 11am, July 18, 2014 at the Northern California Veteran's Cemetery, Igo, California with a Celebration of Life following at Anderson River Park Scout Hall, Redding. Hoyt-Cole Chapel of the Flowers of Red Bluff has been entrusted with the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Dorothy Bonds, in Memory of Joseph Bonds. JosephF.Bonds December 5, 1923 – May 30, 2014 R ed Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service NowOffering Eco-Friendly urns at economy friendly prices. 722 Oak Street, Red Bluff, FD Lic. 1931 527-1732 SATURDAY, JULY 5, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM |NEWS | 9 A