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Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin on Thursday unveiled a new one-stop shop to provide various services to county jail inmates released under the guidelines established by Assembly Bill 109, the state’s prison realignment law.

It was noted in part II of this series that girls who run away from home are often doing so because of sexual abuse at home. As reported in the New York Times an estimated 1.6 million juveniles run away from or are thrown out of their homes each year; over half are girls. 

Sensationalized stories and anecdotal information in the media over the past year may make you want to hide behind a closed door. In 2011, Realignment caused great concern that floods of state inmates would walk out of state prison and into the streets. This of course was not true, but over the last year media stories have highlighted concerns that Realignment is causing more local crime. 

After years of cutbacks, layoffs — and now climbing crime rates — police departments throughout the Bay Area have begun taking on new recruits again.

Overall crime in the county’s unincorporated areas went down more than 5 percent in 2012, according to data released by the Merced County Sheriff’s Department this month.