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Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Nevada County Grand Jury • 1998-1999

Wayne Brown Correctional Facility Reason for Investigation*

2 pages

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⚠️ 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 14 findings

The Wayne Brown Correctional Facility (WBCF) is under the jurisdiction of the Nevada County Sheriff's Department. Maintenance of the facility is the responsibility of the General Services Department.

WBCF is located on the grounds of the County Administration Center. The Western Nevada County's 911 Emergency Telephone Center is located within the facility.

The State Board of Corrections inspects the facility every 18 months and issues a public report. The last visit was December 17-18, 1997. This report was reviewed by the Grand Jury and no discrepancies were noted.

The facility employs 46 correctional officers, plus four sworn officers, and four sergeants. There were two correctional officer vacancies at the time of inspection, leaving 44 correctional officers employed.

The facility is clean and efficiently operated. The kitchen is staffed by county personnel and inmates, and can serve 1500 meals a day.

In the medical facility, nurses are on duty 24 hours a day under the supervision of a nurse manager. A nurse practitioner is also on staff for 40 hours a week.

Inmates are encouraged to continue their education. High school classes are available and taught by a teacher on contract with Nevada Joint Union High School District. At the time of the Grand Jury's visit, there were 20 independent study students working toward a high school diploma. Twelve ÷. inmates attend General Educational Development (GED) classes, and five passed the GED in 1998. Four inmates received a high school diploma during 1998.

The average daily population is 134 and the maximum capacity of the facility is 230. At the time of inspection the jail housed 122 inmates. The jail is divided into three sections: minimum, medium and maximum security pods. Male and female prisoners are housed separately.

Inmates in the minimum security section are allowed outside the facility under supervision during the day to work for government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

F10

Inmates can be sentenced to WBCF for up to one year. Management stated that there is an 80 percent repeat offender rate.

F11

The fire alarm system was not operational at the time of the first visit. Management instituted special procedures to insure the safety of inmates and staff. The problem was corrected within three days.

F12

The captain in charge reported that there is no routine substance abuse testing of staff due to the high cost. Random testing is available on an individual basis when requested by a supervisor.

F13

The facility uses updated computer equipment to access information from the Department of Justice to screen the inmates. Fingerprint checks of newly arrested inmates are screened by checking these files, and at the time of release. Nevada County is one of two counties in the State using this system.

F14

The Grand Jury found that the problem with the sally port doors mentioned in the last Grand Jury report was corrected. CONCLUSIONS

Recommendations 7

R1

The Grand Jury recommends that staffing needs and funding be identified and obtained in order to screen all visitors entering the courthouse. The Grand Jury recommends that electronic surveillance equipment be purchased and installed in the
R2

courtrooms and hallways of the building. The Grand Jury recommends the BOS direct the County Administrative Officer to develop a written procedure to assure that future delays caused by lack of planning are eliminated in completing any projects REQUIRED RESPONSES Sheriff Due August 31, 1999 Board of Supervisors Due September 30, 1999 County Administrative Officer Due August 30, 1999 6
R3

The Grand Jury found that some of the critical improvements to the Substation had not been accomplished since the 1997-98 Grand Jury report on the Truckee facility was released. At the time of our investigation, the Truckee Substation Jail was not open full time due to a shortage of jail staff. The jail will not reopen on a full time basis until a minimum staff of six correctional officers is b assigned to comply with BOC standards.
R4

On September 23, 1997, a BOC field representative, in a letter to the Assistant Sheriff, made several recommendations regarding the Truckee Substation. Some of these recommended changes which have not been made are: 7
R5

The Grand Jury researched why the needed changes to the Truckee Substation had not been completed. The list below is in chronological order: 9-23-97 letter from BOC field representative to Assistant Sheriff describing required upgrades to the Truckee substation 9-30-97 letter from a construction firm to Sheriff's office with a detail bid on some requested • work including new fire doors and new dividing walls 10-9-97 electrical company bid on electrical and surveillance equipment needed for the • substation 10-24-97 electrical company bid on dispatch area 10-30-97 safety inspection report by the office of the State Fire Marshall on the Truckee 0 Substation calling for needed repairs to the fire alarm system 11-04-97 work order from an electronic systems company for work on the fire alarm and related 0 systems 11-18-97 letter from Office of the State Fire Marshall, in a follow up inspection, that the fire alarm system was operational and "fire watch" conditions were no longer necessary 11-19-97 letter from Deputy State Marshall, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to . facility captain requesting immediate attention to several issues including electrical, fire alarm system and inoperable exit door 12-11-97 letter from Assistant Sheriff to Facilities Management of Nevada County requesting changes and improvements needed to upgrade the Truckee Substation 3-31-98 construction bid on framing, electrical, sheet rock work, doors, hardware and flooring in 8 dispatch area 4-02-98 second bid on same work 6-19-98 e-mail from Truckee Dispatcher to Commander, Truckee Substation notifying of an electrical failure in the dispatch and 911 center the previous night 8-12-98 through 8-31-98 eleven e-mails between Sheriffs Department, General Services Department and County Risk Manager discussing unsafe working conditions and funding for proposed corrective work 8-31-98 e-mail between Sheriff's Department and General Services Department discussing placement and prices of equipment, including discussion of why plans or specifications are not available 9-15-98 e-mail from Commander, Truckee Substation to Assistant Sheriff discussing diagrams of proposed changes and discussed Grand Jury visit and the Grand Jury's dismay that work requested in 1997 had not even been started 8 9-17-98 letter from County Risk Manager to Sheriff again describing the electrical problems at . the Truckee Substation 9-25-98 e-mail from Assistant Sheriff to Director, General Services asking why the Sheriff's . office is required to define equipment and installation 9-25-98 five more e-mails between the Truckee Substation Commander, the Sheriff's office and General Services on the above issues with no apparent action 10-08-98 e-mail Sheriff's Department to General Services Department about budget transfer of $10,000 for Truckee Substation project 11-03-98 three e-mails, from Sheriffs Department, General Services Department and dispatch • manager of the Truckee Substation, the first discusses the need for Board of Supervisors (BOS) approval. The other two discuss the deplorable work environment at the Truckee Substation. A remodel that had started September 21, 1998 only included American Disabilities Act requirements. This resulted in a hazardous dispatch /911 work area because wiring and exposed flooring had not been properly completed. 11-10-98 Nevada County Board of Supervisors (BOS) minutes, (volume 58, pages 371 through . 373) discusses repairs to the Truckee Substation. This discussion included dollar amounts placed on projects keeping them below County and State mandated levels, to expedite certain purchasing contracts without the necessity of either formal bidding and/or BOS approval. Government Code Section 25500 authorizes a county to employ a Purchasing Agent. If such is done, competitive bidding requirements are generally dispensed with within the area of the Purchasing Agent authority. The State mandated level is below $6500 and the County level is below $10,000.
R6

The Grand Jury found on 12-29-98 during their visit to the Truckee Substation that some of the work projects as per BOC requirements dated 9-23-97 were close to completion. The surveillance and security equipment arrived at the Nevada County Purchasing Department on or about January 29,
R7

The Sheriff's Department should request the CAO to conduct a study to determine an entry pay rate that would attract viable candidates for deputies and correctional officers. 16

Conclusions 2

CL1 Page 2

The Sheriff's Department has made significant progress in correcting problems identified by previous Grand Jury recommendations at the WBCF.
CL2 Page 2

The staff employed at WBCF perform their work in a professional manner.

* 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.