Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Contra Costa County

Recommendations 19

• R1

  Page 111
  The Board of Supervisors should review the Interagency Protocol for Serving Commercially Sexually Exploited Children in Contra Costa County finalized in October 2015.
• R2

  Page 111
  The Board of Supervisors, City Councils and Sheriff’s Department should consider recommending that all CSEC interagency partners, as listed in the CSEC Protocol, in Contra Costa County adopt their own CSEC protocols and submit them to CFS for approval.
• R3

  Page 111
  The Board of Supervisors should consider directing CFS, as the lead implementing bureau, to follow up on the required plans and protocols from the interagency partners, as listed in the CSEC Protocol, implementing the CSEC Protocol.
• R4

  Page 111
  The Board of Supervisors should consider directing CFS to expand its CSEC Response Flow Chart to include all critical steps to be taken for the welfare of the child victim, including mental health evaluation by the Health Department and child Welfare hold requests by the social workers.
• R5

  Page 111
  The Board of Supervisors should consider directing CFS to train or hire specialized CSEC personnel who will serve as points of primary referral and assist in navigating the services provided to victims of CSEC utilizing funds provided by the State Department of Social Services.
• R6

  Page 111
  The Board of Supervisors should consider directing CFS to follow the model of the Family Justice Centers in assisting victims of CSEC navigate the multitude of available services.
• R7

  Page 111
  The Board of Supervisors should consider seeking funds to acquire or lease a physical facility to temporarily house victims of CSEC, which would allow suspected victims of CSEC to be placed in a legal, non-criminal temporary hold, rather than having law enforcement book the child into Juvenile Hall with a criminal charge.
• R8

  Page 111
  If the County secures funding to construct or lease a CFS physical facility, the Board of Supervisors should consider housing specialized CSEC navigators at the facility, similar to the model used by the Calli House. Contra Costa County 2015-2016 Grand Jury Report 1605 Version 4/21/2016 3:24 PM Grand Jury Reports are posted at http://www.cc-courts.org/grandjury
• R9

  Page 112
  The Board of Supervisors, City Councils, and Sheriff’s Department should consider recommending that all first responders (usually law enforcement) refer suspected victims of CSEC to specialized and dedicated CSEC personnel, to be established within CFS.
• R10

  Page 112
  The Board of Supervisors should direct CFS to formulate CSEC training programs, containing different emphases for different County departments, interacting with victims of CSEC.
• R11

  Page 112
  City Councils and Sheriff’s Department should direct law enforcement to avail themselves of CSEC training programs formulated by CFS.
• R12

  Page 161
  After identifying the necessary funding, the Board of Supervisors should consider directing the County’s Transportation, Water, and Infrastructure Committee to establish a task force or initiate a staff study to investigate ways to encourage and facilitate grant-seeking coalitions of urban water agencies and/or other beneficiaries of the levee system, on smaller-scale projects with shorter time horizons than those currently being investigated by the Delta Protection Commission (i.e. similar to but including even smaller-scale projects than the Bacon Island improvement coalition).
• R13

  Page 161
  After identifying the necessary funding, the Board of Supervisors should consider directing the County’s Transportation, Water, and Infrastructure Committee to establish a task force to investigate possible ways for the less-advantaged reclamation districts to obtain interim funding, including but not limited to grants or low-interest rate loans, to cover the initial two-year lag-time to obtain reimbursement for essential levee maintenance work from the Subventions Program.
• R14

  Page 234
  The COE should consider requiring that information in forms completed during exit interviews concerning reasons for employment termination at the Brentwood Contra Costa County 2015-2016 Grand Jury Report 1611 Grand Jury Reports are posted at http://www.cc-courts.org/grandjury Schools be categorized so that specific trends can be detailed for use in recruiting and retaining employees and this accumulated data can be reduced to an annual report to the CBOE and made available to the public; after identifying funds to do so.
• R15

  Page 235
  The COE should consider creating SARCs applicable to Special Education programs that track data such as performance, progress of the special education programs and IEP goals met to give a true picture of the effectiveness of the programs offered.
• R16

  Page 300
  The County should consider creating an easily accessible, online central repository with all relevant information on deed-restricted housing units to assure that inventory of AH is maintained, and identify funding to do so.
• R17

  Page 331
  The City should consider adopting a policy to promulgate, enforce, and promote a daytime curfew. Contra Costa County 2015-2016 Grand Jury Report 1615 Grand Jury Reports are posted at http://www.cc-courts.org/grandjury
• R22

  Page 103
  In many cases, students of different ages may be mixed together in a single classroom according to their mental capabilities, to sustain continuity of learning. It is vital that the learning environment in special education schools be one of compassion and serenity to foster the learning process, notwithstanding the behavior issues that may arise with special needs children. Those personnel involved with special needs children must be compassionate, properly credentialed, and trained to administer to the “special” needs of special education children. They must have the confidence and support of the students, their parents and school administrators. For at least the past three years staff reports persisted of a hostile work environment at two of the COE special needs schools, which are located in Brentwood (subsequently referred to in this report as the “Brentwood Schools”). During this period, a number of qualified teachers claimed they sought transfers, had retired or were forced out by the principal when they expressed concerns about the school environment. A number of these complaints were communicated through union representatives to the COE. However, the complaints were not resolved to the satisfaction of the teachers and staff at the Brentwood Schools until the complaints were aired at public meetings of the County Board of Education in the fall of 2015. At the Board’s October 21, 2015 meeting, a representative of the teachers’ union announced that a majority of teachers Contra Costa County 2015-2016 Grand Jury Report 1611 Grand Jury Reports are posted at http://www.cc-courts.org/grandjury at the Brentwood Schools had signed a “vote of no confidence” in the principal of the Brentwood Schools. The complaints were raised again by teachers and others at the County Board meeting on November 4, 2015. Shortly thereafter the principal of the Brentwood Schools resigned and a replacement was appointed by the County Superintendent of Schools. The matter took years to squarely address because teachers and staff at the Brentwood Schools perceived there was no clear and protected procedure in place for filing complaints with the COE about their principal without fear of retaliation. Further, the problem might have been resolved after it was first brought to the attention of the COE and CBOE had those bodies acted decisively at the onset of the complaints. The Grand Jury recommends that appropriate and well understood internal complaint procedures be put in place that assure employees and teachers that complaints about working conditions supported or tolerated by higher-level administrators will receive professional attention from the Superintendent’s office or the CBOE without fear of retaliation or adverse treatment. Acronyms COE = Contra Costa County Office of Education (Superintendent) CBOE = County Board of Education (Trustees) IEP = Individual Education Plan SELPA = Special Education Local Plan Area IA = Instructional Assistant (Classified employee) CTA = California Teachers Association (Teacher’s union) Local One = Classified employees union IR = Incident Report UCP = Uniform Complaint Procedures SARC = School Accountability Report Card
• R12-14

  Page 197
  years. The State of Human Trafficking in California (2012) issued by the California Attorney General notes that “…trafficking [in California] as a criminal enterprise is second only to the drug trade in annual revenues.” Approximately 80% of human trafficking activity occurs in three “hotspots”, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego. California Penal Code 236.1 (paraphrased below) provides that human trafficking involve one or more of the following acts: (cid:2) Coercion: causing a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm or physical restraint; (cid:2) Deprivation of personal liberty: accomplished through force, fear, fraud, deceit, coercion, violence, duress, menace or threat of unlawful injury; (cid:2) Duress: a direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship or retribution sufficient to cause a reasonable person to acquiesce in or perform an act which he or she would otherwise not have submitted; or (cid:2) Forced labor or services: labor or services obtained or maintained through force, fraud, duress or coercion, or equivalent conduct that would reasonably overbear the will of the person. California’s Response to the Human Trafficking Problem In 2005 California enacted its first anti-trafficking law (AB22) making human trafficking a felony and assisting its victims. Along with a related bill, (SB180), the legislation also established the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery (CA ACTS) Task Force to review California’s response to human trafficking. Proposition 35, which passed in 2012, increases prison terms for traffickers and requires sex traffickers to register as sex offenders. It also requires that all law enforcement officers assigned to Contra Costa County 2015-2016 Grand Jury Report 1609 Grand Jury Reports are posted at http://www.cc-courts.org/grandjury