Supervisor Desmond has announced a meeting for the public to learn about the proposed transitional housing for parolees at 3235 Norris Ave. Sheriff's Department people will be at the meeting, which will be held on August 10th at 5:30pm in the upstairs meeting room at Country Club Lanes, 2600 Watt Avenue.

We don't know whether Supervisor Desmond himself will be present, as he has been recovering from a rear-end collision while riding his motorcycle last month. In his email message, Supervisor Desmond said the county has no authority over approval or licensing for the proposal, though he added that he shares the concerns with the proposal that people have been emailing and calling him about. 

Because the proposed parolee housing is a state-level matter, Supervisor Desmond provided email addresses and phone numbers for our legislators so the public can contract them:

• Assemblywoman Maggie Krell, assemblymember.krell@assembly.ca.gov, (916) 324-4676
• Senator Roger Niello. Senator.Niello@senate.ca.gov, (916) 772-0571

Our take: It's true that the County has to do whatever the state says. But that doesn't mean the location is one that is primed for success. The site is far from the support services needed for parolees to not return to prison, has a horrible "Walk Score" (a walkability index) of 32 out of 100, lacks public transportation, and will require paying extra to chauffeur the parolees around. The site is also located in very close proximity to schools and is not far from clusters of homeless individuals along Marconi, some of whom use - and even sell - controlled substances. Those factors do not seem to bode well for reducing recidivism. We do not know if the state considered any of those factors in its site selection process or its funding decision. We hope the Sheriff's people will address those issues at the meeting.