sacramento county s main jail sits in the heart of downtown. 20 miles to the south in the heart of one of the nation s largest and most productive farming valleys is the county s branch, the correctional center. like the downtown branch, real consumas roughly houses 2,000 men and women. but here, the majority of them are already convicted of crimes and serving sentences. that s due in part to a 2011 law known as the public safety realignment act or ab 109. the catalyst for ab 109 was the state s mandate and need to reduce the prison population with haste. they called it realignment. the idea being to realign lower-level offenders to a more appropriate custodial setting. what they did was take the responsibility for thousands of
so they say ron, you don t understand it. you don t understand what i m going through. i can say, wait a minute, i was here. i was in the same colored shirt as you was. and now i know what it takes to live a better life. when i was locked up here, there was no counselor for me to communicate with. there was no program in place at that time. but with ab 109, when they get out, they can be a transformed individual. rather than just doing time with no rehabilitation. yeah, this is ron from reentry. i m looking to get mr. greggs if you can get him sent to te 8, i would appreciate it. sure. all right, thanks. rodriguez greggs was convicted a week earlier. for possession of a controlled substance while armed and possession of marijuana for sale. he was sentenced to one year and will serve his time at real consumas. this is my first time being here so it s kind of scary being here with people who got all of these type of charges. this doesn t even seem like a jail.
on, but there s really something to lock into that s real, it s tangible, and it can make a difference. smith was in and out of real consumas over a ten-year period on convictions including robbery, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of a stolen vehicle. he says it was all fuelled by addiction, but he finally found help while out on probation. all the drugs, alcohol, cocaine. then i had an epiphany. went to a drug program. once i went there, they had introduced me to a new way of living. and since then, you know, it s just amazing to be able to walk around here where i used to be locked up at with the key, to be able to help someone else. so they say ron, you don t understand it. you don t understand what i m going through. i can say, wait a minute, i was here. i was in the same colored shirt as you was. and now i know what it takes to
live a better life. when i was locked up here, there was no counselor for me to communicate with. there was no program in place at that time. but with ab 109, when they get out, they can be a transformed individual. rather than just doing time with no rehabilitation. yeah, this is ron from reentry. i m looking to get mr. greggs if you can get him sent to gate 8, i would appreciate it. sure. all right, thanks. rodriguez greggs was convicted a week earlier. for possession of a controlled substance while armed and possession of marijuana for sale. he was sentenced to one year and will serve his time at real consumas. this is my first time being here so it s kind of scary being here with people who got all of these type of charges. this doesn t even seem like a jail. it seems like a prison. and they lot of people live like this is their home. i can t live like that here. i don t feel like this is my home.
20 miles to the south in the heart of one of the nation s largest and most productive farming valleys is the county s branch, the correctional center. like the downtown branch, real consumas roughly houses 2,000 men and women. but here, the majority of them are already convicted of crimes and serving sentences. that s due in part to a 2011 law known as the public safety realignment act or ab 10 nine. the catalyst for ab 109 was the state s mandate and need to reduce the prison population with haste. they called it realignment. the idea being to realign lower-level offenders to a more appropriate custodial setting. what they did was take the responsibility for thousands of inmates that would have been going to the state prison system and now said now they re the county jail s problem. the law created new challenges for the county by