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ByAmyTaxin TheAssociatedPress LOSANGELES Afteraback- lash to immigration en- forcement in U.S. jails, local sheriffs' agencies are com- ing up with new ways to assist federal efforts to en- sure immigrants with seri- ous criminal convictions aren't released back onto the streets. The Los Angeles Sher- iff's Department, the na- tion's largest, is the latest example. Sheriff Jim Mc- Donnell announced plans to let Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the jails run by his agency but only to interview for possible deportation those immigrants deemed the most serious public safety threats. Other counties in Cali- fornia have been crafting their own rules and police and sheriff's officials else- where have been evaluating whether and how to partic- ipate in the government's revamped immigration en- forcement program. Until earlier this year, many law enforcement agencies were reluctant to work with ICE due to con- cerns among immigrants within their communities and a federal court rul- ing in Oregon that inmates could not be kept in jail solely based on immigra- tion authorities' requests to detain them. Now, more than half of the roughly 340 jurisdic- tions that previously de- clined to cooperate with ICE are doing so in some form, said Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the De- partment of Homeland Se- curity. The latest shift comes af- ter intense outreach by fed- eral immigration officials and several high-profile cases including one in San Francisco where a man re- cently released from jail de- spite five prior deportations was charged with shooting to death a woman walking on a city pier. "We are seeing counties wanting to find a way to cooperate with ICE," said Jennie Pasquarella, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, add- ing that many jurisdic- tions still won't detain im- migrants for ICE over legal concerns but will tell the agency when immigrants sought for deportation are being released or transfer them to ICE custody. "Los Angeles is a prior- ity jurisdiction for ICE, and I think it will be a model that is used by other coun- ties, for better or worse," she said. ICE has access to fin- gerprint data taken at jail bookings, and uses the in- formation to locate and deport immigrants in the country illegally who were arrested on local crimes. Last year, the agency an- nounced plans to focus on more serious offenders and ask local law enforcement to at least notify authorities when immigrants wanted for deportation were being released. Since then, the number of immigrants that ICE has sought to apprehend from the jails has declined, fed- eral statistics show. Immigrant advocates have long decried immi- gration enforcement efforts in the jails, while those op- posed to illegal immigra- tion don't want police to be able to opt out of help- ing ICE. After the San Fran- cisco shooting, the topic was fiercely debated in Con- gress and on the Republi- can presidential campaign trail, where Donald Trump branded Mexican immi- grants as criminals. Last year, many sher- iffs' departments in Cali- fornia started refusing to honor requests to keep im- migrants in jail up to 48 hours for ICE over fear of a lawsuit. Now, those in San Diego and San Bernardino counties said they are noti- fying ICE when immigrants sought by the agency are be- ing released so deportation officers can arrive in time to pick them up. In Fresno and Kern coun- ties, sheriff's officials said they're letting ICE work out of the jails to take peo- ple into custody directly. Elsewhere in the coun- try, agencies are also trying to find a middle ground. In Texas, the Dallas County sheriff's department recently be- gan limiting when it will honor ICE's requests to de- tain immigrants, and now only does so for more seri- ous offenders, said deputy sheriff Raul Reyna. Some that consider them- selves safe havens for immi- grants, such as San Fran- cisco and Cook County, Il- linois, aren't participating in ICE's new effort at all. While many sheriff's agencies are trying to help, they can't detain immi- grants for federal authori- ties without a warrant and ICE does not have enough officers to collect everyone targeted for deportation, making the current pro- gram "dangerously ineffec- tive," said Jonathan Thomp- son, executive director of the National Sheriffs' Asso- ciation. LAW ENFORCEMENT LA , ot he rs l et ti ng i mmi gr at io n ag en ts i n th e ja il s MICHAELMACOR—SANFRANCISCOCHRONICLE,FILE Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, right, is led into the courtroom by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, le , for his arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Land- mark changes in Califor- nia's criminal justice sys- tem four years ago have not saved the state money or reduced the rate of con- victs who are quickly back behind bars as proponents had promised, but the changes also did not pro- duce a feared spike in vio- lent crime, an independent research organization said Monday. About 18,000 offenders who previously would have been in prison or jail have been released since October 2011, the nonpartisan Pub- lic Policy Institute of Cali- fornia estimated in its re- port. That's when the state shifted responsibility for inmates convicted of non- violent, nonsexual and less serious crimes to county jails. PPIC released the review for the fourth anniversary of the new law. Gov.JerryBrownhadpre- dicted that counties could do a better job of keeping offenders from committing new crimes by helping them with jobs, housing, educa- tion and other services, but the report found recidivism rates have not fallen. For the first group of of- fenders released under the program — nearly 50,000 inmates — the rate of new arrests and convictions was similar to before the changes, with about half being arrested for new of- fenses within a year, the in- stitute found. Linda Penner, chair- woman of the Board of State and Community Cor- rections, said counties are taking advantage of the changes to pioneer novel approaches to repeated im- prisonment, such as help- ing incarcerated veterans or pairing offenders with other students in commu- nity college classes. The change hasn't saved the state money as Brown and others predicted. Cor- rections spending now tops $10 billion a year, up nearly a half-billion dollars since before the criminal justice realignment and nearly as much as the state spent in 2008, when it had 40,000 more inmates and 80,000 more parolees. Spending is at a his- toric high when the $1 bil- lion the state gives counties each year for realignment programs is included, said Magnus Lofstrom, who co- authored the institute's re- port. He blamed the high costs on federal control of the prison health care sys- tem, which has led to bil- lions of dollars in spending to improve care. The state also has spent $2.2 billion to help counties build more jails. The changes Brown sought helped reduce the prison population by more than 27,000 inmates to comply with federal court orders but drove county jail populations to near historic highs and led many sheriffs to release inmates to ease overcrowding. County jails released another 10,000 of- fenders after voters last year approved Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for some drug and property crimes, the institute said. With the drop in the prison and jail populations, California's incarceration rate is now as low as it was in the mid-1990s, while its crime rates remain at his- toric lows. "We have reduced our re- liance on incarceration, and it's important that we keep an eye on our crime rates ... to make sure we are not reversing that long-term trend of declining crime rates," Lofstrom said. The institute found no evidence that realignment increased violent crime, though it has repeatedly blamed it for increasing the rate of auto thefts. Michael Rushford, pres- ident of the nonprofit Sac- ramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, predicted the state's low in- carceration rate will even- tually lead to an increase in violent crime. He noted that the city of Los Angeles, which drives state crime rates, reported a more than 14 percent in- crease in violent crime last year. That's the first such increase in about a decade. However, the violent crime rate was still low compared to a decade ago, and a drop in property crimes led to a decline in the city's overall crime rate for the 12th con- secutive year. PRISON REALIGNMENT Reforms have not yielded savings or spike in crime By Erica Werner The Associated Press WASHINGTON A chaotic scramble is on to fill the top GOP jobs in the House following Speaker John Boehner's surprise resigna- tion. Now the same conser- vatives who pushed him out are maneuvering to yank the next leadership team to the right. The frenzied action un- der the Capitol Dome will help determine how Con- gress contends with up- coming battles on keeping the government running and avoiding a federal de- fault — and whether Re- publicans can take back the White House next year. Boehner's announce- ment shocked nearly every- one, opening a rare chance for ambitious lawmakers to climb the congressional lad- der and for competing fac- tions to exert new sway as an anti-establishment fever sweeps GOP politics. The front-runner for the speaker's job, Major- ity Leader Kevin McCar- thy, made his candidacy of- ficial Monday in a letter to fellow GOP lawmakers in which he pledged to fight for conservative principles and listen to all members — something Boehner was ac- cused of failing to do. "If elected speaker, I promise you that we will have the courage to lead the fight for our conserva- tive principles and make our case to the American people," McCarthy wrote. "But we will also have the wisdom to listen to our con- stituents and each other so that we always move for- ward together." McCarthy, a Californian in his fifth term, has been endorsed by Boehner. But he faces an opponent in Rep. Daniel Webster, a for- mer speaker of the House in Florida who unsuccessfully challenged Boehner at the beginning of this year and has drawn some conserva- tive support. "I would like to have a principle-based member-driven Congress," Webster said in an inter- view. And McCarthy's likely as- cent leaves the race for ma- jority leader wide open. It's already turned into at least a three-way contest with the No. 3 and No. 4 House Republicans, Steve Scal- ise of Louisiana and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Wash- ington, aggressively pursu- ing the job, along with the Budget Committee chair- man, Tom Price of Georgia. All are jockeying to lock down support as the Capi- tol swirls in chatter about endorsements. One seen as significant: Former Vice Presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan announced his decision to endorse Price on Monday. The House's tea partyers, some three dozen strong, aren't fielding a candidate. But they want to see lead- ers who will take the fight to President Barack Obama and the Democrats, not compromise with them as the realities of divided gov- ernment led Boehner to do. Some of them question whether McCarthy, who's seen more as a political op- erator than an ideologue, would deliver that new ap- proach. "I don't see how mem- bers of the Freedom Cau- cus can vote for Kevin Mc- Carthy and go home to their town halls and tell them that things will be differ- ent now," said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Boehner's decision to step down rather than face a nearly unprecedented floor vote to depose him averted immediate crisis, as the Senate voted Mon- day on legislation to keep the government running, and the House was sched- uled to follow suit before a Thursday deadline. Despite conservatives' demands, the bill will not cut off money for Planned Parenthood in the wake of videos focused on the group's practice of providing fetal tissues for research. But the bill merely ex- tends the government fund- ing deadline until Dec. 11, when another shutdown showdown will loom as conservatives make new demands on Boehner's suc- cessor and on Senate Ma- jority Leader Mitch McCo- nnell, R-Ky. CONGRESS Scramble to fill top jobs in House a er Boehner exit JACQUELYN MARTIN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California speaks about foreign policy during the John Hay Initiative on Monday at a hotel in Washington. By Juliet Williams The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Supporters of an effort to repeal Cal- ifornia's new law requir- ing mandatory vaccines for schoolchildren met a Monday deadline to turn in enough signatures to qual- ify a ballot initiative ask- ing voters to repeal the law. The group had until the end of the day to submit the needed 366,000 sig- natures to county clerks to ask California voters to repeal SB277, which struck the state's personal belief exemption for immuniza- tions, a move that requires nearly all public school- children to be vaccinated. Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB277 into law earlier this year amid fierce opposition from some parents' rights groups who argue the state should not force their chil- dren to be vaccinated, say- ing the science is clear that vaccines "dramatically protect children against a number of infectious and dangerous diseases." Election clerks in Los Angeles and Contra Costa counties reported re- ceiving signature peti- tions Monday, but officials might not know until next week whether supporters have enough signatures to make it to the ballot. County clerks have eight business days to count and report how many signa- tures they received, which would likely be followed by a more detailed review. The leading proponent of the effort, former Re- publican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, said in an email Monday that vol- unteers were coerced and threatened while collect- ing signatures. Donnelly did not return repeated messages in- quiring about the effort's chances but said in his email that he was proud of the volunteers who worked on the campaign "what- ever the outcome is." "The SB277 referendum was sabotaged from with- out and within by power- ful forces from its very in- ception, but we never gave up and we never gave in," he wrote. The bill's author, Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacra- mento, told reporters Mon- day that he's confident vot- ers support the vaccina- tion requirement, whether the initiative makes the ballot or not. "I'm sure the voters of California are not inter- ested in letting a privi- leged few take away the rights of all Californians to be safe from prevent- able disease," Pan said. BALLOT MEASURE Group submits signatures to repeal vaccination law The Associated Press MIDDLETOWN Students in the Middletown Uni- fied School District are heading back to classes following one of the most destructive wildland fires in California history. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Sunday that students are head- ing back Monday, more than two weeks after the fire devastated the Lake County community. The fire killed four people and destroyed more than 1,950 structures. Schools were used as evacuation centers during the peak of the fire. The fire was 97 percent contained Monday. All evacuations were lifted in the affected areas. The blaze started Sept. 12, and charred 118 square miles. The cause remains under investigation. The fire was the third- most-destructive ever in California history and burned amid a historically deadly and costly wildfire season, the newspaper re- ported. Fire evacuees are stay- ing at shelters at Twin Pines Casino in Middle- town and at Grace Church in Kelseyville, California. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Middletown schools reopen a er wildfire R ed Bluff Simple Cremations and Burial Service FD1931 527-1732 Burials - Monuments - Preneed 722 Oak Street, Red Bluff TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM |NEWS | 5 A