MODESTO -- Drugs and weapons off the street and 16 people in custody were the results of 51 searches conducted by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
The sweeps in Riverbank, Oakdale and Salida on Thursday were made possible by the state's funding for realignment, or Assembly Bill 109.
AB 109 was signed into law in April 2011 to reduce the state's budget deficit and meet a U.S. Supreme Court order to remove about 33,000 inmates from the state's 33 overcrowded prisons by May 2013.
The Stanislaus County Probation Department oversees the county's funding for realignment, which was $6.5 million for the first nine months starting in October 2011 and will nearly double to $12 million for fiscal year 2012-13.
Probation Chief Jill Silva said $100,000 annually is devoted to large-scale compliance operations such as Thursday's, which was the fourth of its kind. Five of the 16 people were arrested on violations of the terms of their post-release community supervision.
PRCS is for people who recently have been released from prison for "nonviolent, nonserious and nonsexual" crimes, and under AB 109 are supervised by probation instead of parole. They will be sent to county jails instead of back to prison.
A tool called "flash incarceration" was built into the legislation to use specifically on those on PRCS, Silva said. Probation officers can incarcerate violators for up to 10 days without a court hearing. People who are incarcerated on probation violations must see a judge within 48 hours of their arrest, Silva said.
Since October, more than 40 people have been flash incarcerated, including one during Thursday's operation.
Eight people were arrested on probation violations and three on suspicion of new offenses. Arrests were made on violations and bench warrants as well as drugs and weapons charges.
Among the items seized were one rifle, one box of ammunition, 6 grams of cocaine, 5.6 grams of methamphetamine, throwing stars, five marijuana plants and a Billy club.
The agencies that participated Thursday were Stanislaus County probation, state parole, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, Oakdale police, the Department of Motor Vehicles and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bee staff writer Erin Tracy can be reached at etracy@modbee.com or (209) 578-2366.
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