On June 30, the San Bernardino County Probation Department deployed the final seven Probation Officers to be stationed at law enforcement agencies as a result of AB 109, the State Prison Realignment Plan. This brings the total number of Probation Officers assigned to work directly at police departments and Sheriff’s substations to twenty-five. The Probation Department will hire in excess of one hundred new officers as a result of AB 109 Realignment, and will assign them to different aspects of the implementation of AB109.
According to Probation Department spokesman Chris Condon, “There will be one officer assigned to the Sheriff’s Department [in Joshua Tree] to oversee the 50 most serious of those 78 [Post-Release Community Supervision] offenders who live in the Morongo Basin . It should be noted that while this officer is assigned specifically to the PRCS offenders via the Sheriff’s Department, he will be available to deal with issues with any PRCS offender- and additional officers from the Joshua Tree Probation Office will also supervise PRCS offenders.” Condon added that probation officers already in the Joshua Tree office will assist the AB109 officer as needed. AB109 officers will also be available to police officers or deputies in each jurisdiction to assist with other task force sweeps and operations.
