San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury
• 2016-2017
• Agency Response
Response to:
Juvenile_Hall_Final_Report
County of San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors Agenda Item Transmittal (1) Department (2) Meeting Date (3)*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 6 findings
F2
Page 1
"With its new expansion, Juvenile Hall has more space than it is likely to need." The Probation Department disagrees partially with
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Page 1
"The Board should request a report on program costs versus group home savings as part of its annual budget hearings, starting with the budget hearings for fiscal year 2017-18. If expected savings are not achieved, the Board should decide if cuts in other areas of the County's budget are needed to allow this important program to continue. The benefits of a treatment program in the Juvenile Hall need to be weighed against the costs. Probation has suggested it would make cuts in other areas of its budget if expected group home cost savings are not realized. Probation's desire to do what is in the best interest of County youth is important. Transparency in the program's net impact to the County budget is important as well.
F3
Page 1
"It has been 10 years since the last Juvenile Hall needs analysis was prepared." The Probation Department agrees with
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Page 1
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors is required to respond to
F4
Page 1
However, as noted by the Grand Jury, the County General Fund expense to run the treatment program is expected to be comparable to the expense incurred in prior years for Group Home placements. Over the past four years, the average Probation expense to the County General Fund for juvenile group home placements was approximately $735,000. The treatment program will eventually replace group home placements in all but the most serious cases. The Probation expense to the County General Fund to operate the treatment program is estimated to be approximately $660,000 per year. Moreover, the ability to treat juveniles locally, in the juvenile hall, instead of sending them out of county, or in some cases out of state, is a significant improvement that will lead to better outcomes for those being treated.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Page 1
If the results of the needs analysis in R1 indicate a sustained underuse, the County should determine no later than June 30, 2020, whether the repurposing suggestions in this report or other alternative uses would benefit the community and improve Juvenile Hall's cost effectiveness, would be feasible to implement, and would be consistent with the County's lease agreement with the State. ... . . . As an alternative to repurposing, a staffing pattern that flexes based on the number of youth occupants— that is, based on usage—would improve cost-effectiveness.
F5
Page 1
"The treatment program is operating without a written operational manual." The Probation Department disagrees partially with
No recommendations for this finding
F6
Page 1
"A dual-purpose facility creates a statistical reporting dilemma. Occupancy trends may be harder to discern depending on how data is reported. Data such as average daily population and average length of stay are used by researchers and members of the public interested in understanding juvenile justice trends. If the numbers from both the treatment unit and the detention units are aggregated in developing this data, trends will become more difficult to discern. If the numbers are separated out, transparency will increase but reporting the data will become more complicated." The Probation Department agrees with
No recommendations for this finding
F7
Page 1
As noted above, the space in the newly expanded juvenile hall is not significantly under-utilized and more space may be needed as the population of the county grows over the next thirty years, the minimum expected life of the facility. Moreover, the non-treatment portion of the facility, which includes the newly constructed space, operates with the same number of staff as it did before the new space was added. Other than expenses for utilities (mainly electric power) and routine maintenance, no new costs have been added to run the expanded facility. Additional repurposing of the Juvenile Hall will not reduce cost to the County general fund.
No recommendations for this finding
Additional Recommendations 1
These recommendations are not explicitly linked to specific findings.
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R1Page 1"The Board should commission a new needs analysis for completion no later than June 30, 2019, to help the County understand if 50 detention beds are too many and if the Juvenile Hall being too big adds unnecessarily to the County's general fund expense. The last needs analysis was in 2007. While the Grand Jury believes it is time for a new needs analysis to be done, waiting until fiscal year 2018-19 to do so will give the County time to experience the effects of new legislation (AB 403 and Proposition 57) and the impact on Juvenile Hall usage."
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.