A high-risk sex offender who cut off his Global Positioning System tracking device Wednesday was arrested Monday afternoon in San Francisco, Vallejo police said.

Joseph Vierra, 49, was taken into custody at 3:30 p.m. at O'Farrell and Polk streets by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Specialized Sex Offender Tracking Unit in cooperation with Vallejo police and the Solano County Sheriff's Office, Vallejo police said.

Vallejo police said Vierra was considered a threat to the community and had prior arrests and convictions for sex offenses against children under age 14…

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has issued a Request For Information (RFI) to site both Male and Female Secure Community Reentry Facilities. The advertisements, released Friday, are further indication of CDCR progress in implementing requirements set forth by the Legislature in AB 900, the comprehensive prison reform package signed by Governor Schwarzenegger on May 3, 2007.

Both of these advertisements and the follow-up Request for Proposals (RFPs) will result in the ability for CDCR to partner with private developers and public agencies to deliver community facilities throughout the state aimed at improving rehabilitation outcomes for California's inmate population.

County says it should be built in Soledad

A state prisoner re-entry facility proposed for Salinas has been relocated to an area near Soledad, county officials said Friday, after the state changed the facility's potential population from low-risk to high-risk inmates.

The project is a joint venture with the county's custody operations bureau and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation…

A video conference held last week with CDCR officials left the state's county sheriffs wanting to speak with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about how the re-entry programs will work at a local level, Hill said.

"We're dealing with a bunch of knuckle-dragging thugs," Hill told the San Benito County Board of Supervisors this week.

If confusion continues, Hill said counties may pull out of potential agreements for state funding from the CDCR…

A grandfather worried about jail escapees, animal lovers wanted a new shelter to take priority, and some wondered about more help for Juvenile Hall. But most of the nearly 90 people attending Wednesday's public forum to discuss four potential county projects seemed focused on a potential state re-entry facility, which would house prison inmates from Shasta County and provide rehabilitative services during the last year of their sentences. "Will having a prison in the community benefit Redding?" Linda Soloniuk of Redding asked just before the meeting. "I think the answer is 'no.'"…

Amid a surge of local skepticism, Shasta County and state prison officials will hold community meetings this week to give the public a much-needed chance for a closer look at a proposed new re-entry facility. On paper, the new state lockup is a promising idea…

Calaveras County, in conjunction with Amador and San Joaquin counties, is breaking new ground in how prisoners are released back to communities. But local officials are still hammering out details with the state and have just begun the first negotiations to nail down funding for local rehabilitation programs. A Tri-County Executive Re-entry Committee is in the initial stages of laying out a plan for the first re-entry facility in the state, located in Stockton…

In an effort to help paroled prisoners adjust more smoothly into their community and stay out of jail, the county may work with the state to develop a reentry plan that could accommodate as many as 200 parolees…