San Bernardino County is taking steps to keep out sexually violent criminals being relocated into their area.
This week, the county board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution to combat the yearslong practice of other counties sending their sexually violent offenders to San Bernardino County.
"I think people look at our county at over 20,000 square miles and they think, ‘It's rural. There can't be a lot of residents out there. We can't get the kind of pushback that we get for the more populated areas. Let's try there,’” said San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe, referring to the recent attempts by state corrections and mental health to relocate sexually violent predators into her district.
Rowe represents the third district, which includes rural areas like Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. Rowe said some of the criminals being relocated to her county include those who have raped women and children.
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The supervisor noted that sexually violent predators are supposed to be released into the county where they committed their crime.
"San Bernardino County has always maintained if we have an offender that offends within this county that we will service and place them,” she stressed.
But in recent years, counties like Ventura and Orange have tried to relocate their sexually violent offenders into San Bernardino County. In both cases, the district attorney's office had to fight the relocations in court.
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“If it's an out of county SVP, they have no ties and nexus to anything within our county. They didn't commit their crimes here. They have no family ties, so for them to be dumped into our county, it's not appropriate for us to be using our resources when they should not be placed in our county to begin with,” said Jacquelyn Rodriguez, a public affairs officer for the San Bernadino County District Attorney’s Office.
This week’s resolution from the board of supervisors forbids any sexually violent predators from being placed in San Bernardino County if they’re not supposed to be there.
The resolution, Rowe said, is meant to send a strong message.
"It is a united message that we are sending to courts all over, and Liberty Healthcare at the state: Please keep them where they've offended, where there are services available, not in our county,” she said.
