San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury
• 2016-2017
Moving the Dial at the County Jail This report examines the progress the San Luis Obispo County Jail has made in
⚠️ 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 8 findings
F1
Classification and housing issues which limit program access have been listed as challenges since AB 109 was passed. From October 1, 2016 to October 1, 2017, the number of offenders booked into the Jail was 7,351. Thirty-one percent were repeat offenders, with between 2 and 20 different bookings each. The top 10 repeat offenders averaged about 16 bookings each. Source: Sheriff’s Office.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Jail administration should intensify efforts to make the investment and access the funding to provide behavior change programming across classification and housing boundaries, e.g., one-on-one services (or “virtual participation” using distance learning technology) where needed. The three million dollars in AB 109 reserves currently available is an obvious source. The Sheriff should develop a plan during fiscal year 2018-2019 to address this recommendation and request funds for this purpose from the Community Corrections Partnership as part of his budget for fiscal year 2019-2020.
F2
Moving programming into housing units hasn’t worked very well. The mix of unsentenced and sentenced inmates within each housing unit, even though contrary to policy, is acknowledged as a reason.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Jail administration should re-examine how to offer programs inside housing units which can be more effective, e.g., sentenced-only housing units, as some who spoke with the Grand Jury have suggested. Sheriff’s Office Custody Manual Policy 516 should be updated to reflect legal status (pre-trial vs. sentenced) is not used as a criterion for housing assignments if these two inmate statuses continue to be mixed.
F3
Hampered by lack of data, attempts to measure program effectiveness have so far come up short. The Sheriff’s Office, San Luis Obispo County Probation Department, and San Luis Obispo County Health Agency have been working for years on an integrated database project, but the project is still unfinished.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The Community Corrections Partnership should set an aggressive deadline (e.g., December 31, 2018) for completing the integrated database project described in its Public Safety Realignment Plan reports, so program effectiveness can finally be measured.
F4
AB 109 funding bought some embroidery and engraving equipment and pays for two program managers, but does not appear to have been used for Jail programs. (The Grand Jury couldn’t be certain about this because the funding sources used, and the amounts providers are paid, lack transparency.)
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Jail administration should provide more programs with a proven track record, using available AB 109, inmate welfare, and grant funding where programs cost money. During fiscal year 2018-2019, the Sheriff should provide additional evidenced-based programming and re-evaluate programs with no clear link to reducing recidivism.
F5
For programs various funding sources do pay for, there is no competitive bidding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
Programs funded by the Sheriff’s Office should be awarded based on competitive bids. This should begin immediately.
F6
$155,288 in annual AB 109 funding is being used to pay for a program manager position which oversees construction training for only a few honor farm inmate participants. (The Grand Jury understands the incumbent recently resigned; San Luis Obispo County’s current “hiring chill” may impact hiring a replacement.)
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
The construction program manager position at the honor farm, funded by AB 109, should be leveraged to provide vocational education opportunities to a broader group of male and female inmates than is currently the case (if or when a replacement is hired to fill the position).
F7
While the job description for all levels of Sheriff’s Correctional Deputy includes encouraging inmate participation in rehabilitative programs as a typical duty, the performance of this duty is not assessed in a correctional deputy’s performance evaluations.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
Correctional deputies should have a measure regarding encouraging inmate program participation as a component of their regular performance reviews.
F8
Programs specifically targeting young adult (age 18–25) inmates have not been a focus.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
Rehabilitative programming should be developed and delivered which specifically targets young adult inmates, by replicating or adapting, for example, the evidence-based programs and interventions employed by the San Luis Obispo County Probation Department at the nearby San Luis Obispo County Juvenile Hall. Planning should occur during fiscal year 2018-2019, and programming specifically targeting this population should be put in place
Conclusions 1
-
CL1The State threw down a gauntlet when it transferred responsibility for rehabilitating lower-level felons from State prisons to county jails. And when Proposition 47 bled county jails of lower-risk offenders, county jails lost their easier-to-manage, easier-to-program inmates. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the Jail has had seven years to deal with this challenge. AB 109 provided the Jail with a funding stream to build programs known to work which can be offered across classification and housing unit boundaries. The Jail should use this funding stream, the program rooms which opened last year, and the program rooms opening this year to really “move the dial” from a warehouse environment to a programming environment focused on reducing recidivism.
Commendations 1
-
CM1The Grand Jury commends Jail Administration, Jail Programs Staff, and Jail Correctional Staff for trying to provide inmate access to programming in the face of significant safety, staffing, transport, and program space challenges. Correctional deputies who are actively involved with inmate programs are particularly commended.
No Responses Found 2
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff
Elected County Office