Salinas police said they arrested two wanted parolees following a short high-speed pursuit Saturday near the Chinatown district.

The arrests came after officers saw Carlos James Petty, 41, get into the driver’s seat of a vehicle around 4:55 p.m. on the lower Soledad Street.

Officers, police said, recognized him as a parolee-at-large who was wanted on a felony arrest warrant...

A wanted Gilroy parolee was arrested early this morning following a high-speed chase through south Salinas, police said.

Officer Lalo Villegas said the man was taken into custody after a Marina police K-9 found him hiding in the back of a home.

Officers chased the man down Alisal Street and through residential neighborhoods near Hartnell College and University Park, as well as Davis and Blanco roads...

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is cutting or reducing aid to about 10 sex offenders this month in Salinas, officials said, due to a policy enacted in May to prevent parolees from living off taxpayer money. As a result, sex offenders will have to find help from friends or family, be able to afford their own housing or become homeless.

The policy was enacted May 1 after CDCR officials decided to limit a parolee's rehabilitation assistance, which includes housing, to 60 days, said spokesman Seth Unger…

Salinas police said they arrested a man on suspicion of attempted homicide after striking another man in his 60s with a beer bottle and repeatedly kicking the victim in the head around 3 p.m. Friday.

Police said Phillip Dering, 38, was walking with an unidentified man in his 60s near Monterey and East Market streets when the two got into an argument. Dering hit the victim with a beer bottle and while the victim was on the ground, Dering started kicking him.

An anonymous caller contacted police and Dering was apprehended by a California Highway Patrol unit near the Lincoln and Central avenues…

Officers of Salinas' Violence Suppression Unit, the city's gang unit, conducted a parole search at the residence of Ruben Lopez, 46, a suspected gang member at 4 p.m. Wednesday on the 2300 block of North Main Street.

Lopez had just been released from Alameda County Jail earlier in the day.

Officers also contacted Eddie Gonzales, 27, a suspected gang member…

A woman has collected the signatures of more than 500 Monterey County residents opposed to the state building a prison re-entry facility in Salinas.

Jonabel Perez of Salinas took the signatures to the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday afternoon before she and another Salinas resident spoke against constructing the proposed 500-bed facility.

As part of her effort to keep the facility out of the city, Perez has formed a group she's calling Families for a Better Salinas, which has spent the past couple of weeks gathering signatures…

With the deadline approaching to identify a site for a proposed state prison inmate re-entry facility, county supervisors expressed concerns Tuesday about the progress being made with state prison officials.

Supervisors received a status report from county staff about efforts to choose a final site for the 500-bed facility, which would house inmates in the final year of their sentence who are due to be released to Monterey County. Identifying a site for the facility is a precursor to receiving an $80 million grant to help expand the county's already overcrowded jail.

County and Salinas officials have until Sept. 13 to formally agree on a site with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the supervisors are set to take final action on that agreement at their next board meeting Sept. 9…

A site proposed for a 500-bed state prison re-entry facility in Salinas has been found unsuitable by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The parcel, which sits on the old Natividad hospital campus, is inadequate because of its size, elevation and a road running through it, said Wayne Tanda, executive director for the Monterey County Resource Management Agency.

"(CDCR) consultants and staff had indicated that the site presented to them a number of challenges," Tanda said…

After months of focusing on the site near the old Natividad hospital grounds as the ideal location for a secure re-entry prison facility, Monterey County officials are now looking at other possible locations.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expressed concerns with the site near the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, including: the elevation of the land; the existing buildings that would have to be destroyed; and the road that goes through the area.

County officials are now looking at other parcels of land in Salinas, including the existing Juvenile Hall as an option…

Residents aired their views on community safety vs. parolee rehabilitation at a community meeting Thursday night to discuss the proposed building of a state prison re-entry facility in Salinas.

More than 60 Salinas-area residents attended the two-hour meeting at Sherwood Hall, some of them weighing in on the issue before Monterey County and Salinas city leaders vote to decide whether the state can build a prison re-entry facility which would house up to 500 nonviolent inmates serving the last year of their sentences.

"If we want to lower crime (in the county) we need to turn the tide and this is the first step," said Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis…

Make no mistake: Hundreds of state prison inmates who've done their "time" return to Monterey County every year.
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By law, the state sends them back to their county of residence.

Until now, they were given a bus ticket home and stepped off the coach with $200 in their pocket. Some of the drug addicts among these parolees would find the nearest pusher and pick up where they left off. Those parolees who actually sought a positive change for themselves arrived "cold turkey" back in the community with few if any job skills, no social orientation or preparation for their return to society. In effect, the chances were slim that they would "make it" back in the real world. The system proved them right: Seven in 10 parolees ended up back in prison…

Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis is promising more public outreach in coming weeks regarding plans to bring a state-run prison re-entry facility to Salinas.

While no dates have been set, Kanalakis said at least one meeting will be held this summer with Salinas residents and officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the county and city of Salinas.

"We look forward to community engagement, discussion, dialogue and feedback," the sheriff said Thursday…

If you want to get everyone in the neighborhood to come to a meeting, tell them there's a plan to build a jail nearby. About the only thing that might stir up more interest and worry would be plans for a landfill or a power plant.

It makes perfect sense that some in Salinas are upset by the idea of 500-bed re-entry facility for state prison inmates at the Natividad Medical Center/sheriff's office/county jail complex along Natividad Road.

Call it a jail, call it a prison, call it a re-entry facility. Whichever, it would be filled with guys who were locked up in the first place because of their tendency to do bad things. Who in their right mind would ever welcome such a place into their neighborhood?…

Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis asked the Salinas City Council on Tuesday to support a prisoner re-entry facility next to the old Natividad Hospital in Salinas. If the council does not lend its support to the facility by Aug. 14, the county will lose $80 million in state funds to expand the ever-crowded county jail.

Residents who live close to the proposed location - the Monterey County government campus that houses the Sheriff's Office at 1414 Natividad Road - came to the meeting with concerns about bringing more violent inmates to the area.

Jonabel Perez, a mother of three, was one of 11 people to voice their opinions on the project. She told the City Council that re-entry facilities are needed, but they should not be situated in the middle of Salinas…

A fugitive wanted in Mexico on homicide charges has been arrested by a team of law enforcement officers led by U.S. Marshals in Salinas, according to a press release issued by the Department of Justice.

The Northern California Fugitive Task Force, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation fugitive agents, and Salinas police officers, arrested Jesus Aguirre-Alvarado as he left his house Wednesday morning.

According to the press release, Alvarado is accused of killing a man during a brawl outside a wedding reception in Guanajuato, Mexico, in 2003. In February 2008, Mexican investigators, believing Alvarado was living in Salinas, requested the assistance of American law enforcement in locating and arresting him…

The FBI has warned law enforcement agencies that two groups of ex-Norteño gang members gaining strength in the prison system could spur more violence in Monterey County and elsewhere in Northern California.

A May 5 classified report, intended only for gang-intelligence officers, says Norteño "dropout" groups such as Nuevas Flores (New Flowers) and Northern Riders pose an increasing threat on the streets of Monterey, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Sacramento and Mendocino counties as they gain influence within the state's lockups, attracting large numbers of recruits.

The groups are made up of ex-Norteños and former members of Nuestra Familia who've joined forces, in part, to offer each other protection from their former gangs.Once released from prison, the report says, these gang dropouts aspire to establish official territory in areas already occupied by Norteño and Sureño street gangs…