Crime doesn’t pay — it costs. Anyone who has ever been a crime victim can tell you that, but so can county sheriffs and probation chiefs who are responsible for keeping track of many of the people who commit crimes in California. They will tell you that it is far more expensive to keep someone in jail than it is to supervise them in the community. The corollary to that is it is far less expensive to help someone so they don’t break the law again, than it is to have to put them back in jail if they do.And if they aren’t committing more crimes, they aren’t creating anymore victims either.

With that in mind, San Bernardino County is at the forefront of a growing trend in criminal justice: meeting the needs of low-risk offenders so they don’t reoffend and get sent back to jail.