County of San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors Agenda Item Transmittal (1) Department (2) Meeting Date (3)

The entire jail complex appears to have been built piecemeal with no master plan. Sheriff response: “We partially disagree with this finding (refer to R5). The Main Jail was built in 1973 and housed both male and female inmates at that time. Comparative to other jails of this age, the Main Jail has been well maintained. The layout of the new Kansas jail and new medical building were well planned and laid out appropriately. Even though the Main Jail has been well maintained, it is 47 years old and in need of replacement as the infrastructure and old-style layout no longer meet the needs of the current population, which have longer sentences and a higher level of sophistication. A long-term plan will be researched and developed to replace the Main Jail with a more modern facility to meet the needs of the new inmate population.” The Board partially disagrees with this finding. There are several components to the Jail facility, built to meet the anticipated needs of the time they were planned. Since public safety realignment, needs have changed further, and the Sheriff will analyze the existing Jail facilities for opportunities to improve their effectiveness. The County’s Capital Improvement Plan includes several priority projects for the Sheriff and Jail complex within the 5 to 20-year time frame, including a new Sheriff administration building and Jail intake release center. These future needs are also reflected in a recently completed conceptual plan for the County Operations Center. Other improvements to the Jail are presently being carried out to improve their suitability for health services.

Addition of correctional deputies, beyond filling the nine current vacancies, would decrease the impact of transporting prisoners within the jail for medical, behavioral health, or programming reasons as well as reduce the burden of mandatory overtime now placed on all of the correctional staff. Sheriff response: “We disagree partially with this finding (refer to R9). Currently all Custody Deputy positions have been filled with someone either hired and in training or involved in the final stages of the hiring process. More Custody Deputy positions would be welcomed when the County Budget has the ability to fund more positions.” The Board partially disagrees with this finding. In order for the Sheriff and Administrative Office to determine if more resources are warranted, staff would need to see the program running with full staffing, as intended. The Board has recently approved the addition of a backgrounds investigation officer as part of the FY 2018-19 budget to help decrease the amount of time it takes to recruit officers. This will help increase recruitment effectiveness and decrease the amount of overtime required from lack of staff coverage as the result of any further staffing changes. Additionally, as the Sheriff notes, deputy positions have been recently filled, or are in the process of being filled, to run this program. If more resources are warranted after full staffing is achieved, the Sheriff would need to submit a request to the Board for consideration.