Sheriff Seeks Contract To Continue Free Shuttle Program For Stranded Inmates

RIVERSIDE (CNS) – The Board of Supervisors is slated Tuesday to consider a $500,000 contract with a taxi service to sustain a subsidized ride program for inmates that ensures they have a means of returning home when they’re released from any Riverside County detention facility.

Riverside Inmate Destination Endeavor, or RIDE, was implemented in June 2014 as a pilot program conceived by then-Supervisor Jeff Stone. Since then, the board has approved funding for RIDE each fiscal year. Up until last spring, the program was only available at the Byrd Detention Center in French Valley, bordering Murrieta.

However, the board voted to expand RIDE to all five of the county’s detention facilities, beginning in the current fiscal year.

Sheriff Chad Bianco is asking the board to authorize a 12-month contract between the county and Finish Line Transport taxi service for $500,000, covering fiscal year 2023-24. The agreement includes the option to annually renew at the same cost until the end of 2026-27.

The revenue would be drawn from the county General Fund.

“The county jail facilities are all within walking distance to several housing communities and business centers,” according to a statement posted to the board’s agenda. “The RIDE program provides the sheriff the ability to pay for the cost of transporting released inmates out of the local community and to their home residences, resulting in prevention of loitering and criminal activity in the community.”

According to sheriff’s documents, some of the 33,000 inmates released from the county’s lockups in the previous fiscal year were unable to secure their own rides home.

RIDE will provide detainees released in 2023-24 with vouchers — each valued at roughly $60 — to cover the costs of transit via Finish Line Transport.

At the time RIDE was initiated, some residents and business owners in French Valley and Murrieta complained that inmates released at all hours of the night from the Byrd Detention Center were loitering near their properties, sometimes behaving aggressively and committing crimes, mostly vandalism and theft.

Inmates are generally set free with no bond requirement when the county’s detention facilities exceed capacity. A 30-year-old federal court order mandates that the sheriff have a bed available for each detainee, or release jailed offenders to make room for incoming ones. Sheriff’s correctional personnel make a determination as to whom to release on a case-by-case basis.

Bianco said last month that the county’s correctional system is running at maximum capacity

Copyright 2023, City News Service, Inc.