The Monterey County Herald quotes Professor Joan Petersilia's report on the effects of realighnment policies on individual counties in California.

A local activist raised concerns Tuesday about a Monterey County panel that disperses state funds for prisoner realignment costs, saying the group may have violated state open-meetings laws.

MacGregor Eddy said the county's contract with a private firm for its Day Reporting Center appeared to have been “rushed” and already decided because a county probation employee indicated she had told the firm's officers they did not need to come to Monterey County to answer any questions.

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Stanford criminologist and law professor Joan Petersilia made that statement in her January report, “Follow the money: How California Counties Are Spending Their Public Safety Realignment Funds.”

Monterey was listed as one of five counties that “had adopted more punitive approaches” before realignment, “but emphasized treatment programs in their spending plans.”

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Monterey's expenditure of 41 percent of its realignment funds on “programs and services” is well above the state average of 23 percent, Petersillia's report noted.