County launches 18-month jail assessment, pledges community engagement and monitoring of reform recommendations

County administration presented a semiannual update on jail reform and asked the Board of Supervisors April 8 to accept a package of near-term steps to assess custodial facilities and build a broadly scoped community engagement process.

Deputy County Executive Consuelo Hernandez and other administration leaders outlined a multi-component plan built around four elements: stakeholder engagement, a technical facility assessment, best‑practice research on custodial design and operations, and a custodial population projection study. The county recommended entering an agreement with CGL Management Group to lead an 18‑month assessment of adult custodial facilities and to help design outreach to community stakeholders.

Administration said CGL was selected from two proposers because of its experience combining operational, planning and stakeholder engagement work. County staff said CGL will front‑load assessments of existing adult custodial facilities and work in parallel with a community engagement plan refined in partnership with the county’s Division of Equity and Social Justice.

Sheriff’s Office and custody health staff told the board about facility improvements and services underway: new monitors at intake to coordinate custody and health evaluations, staffing changes in custody health, pharmacy and dosing improvements, an expansion of in‑custody programs including a women’s library and vocational training, and activation of Medi‑Cal pre‑release benefits for thousands of people in custody. County facilities staff described dozens of completed projects and more than a dozen projects in design to address suicide prevention, ADA access and sanitation issues.

Oakland’s Office of Correctional and Law Enforcement Monitoring (OCLM) presented its seventh audit summary. The monitor reported most previous recommendations were completed or no longer applicable; it proposed continued monitoring in seven remaining areas (for example, internal affairs timeliness and transparency) and said future monitoring should focus on outcomes and timeliness rather than revisiting legacy staffing‑level recommendations.

The administration said the assessment and engagement work plan is a working draft and pledged to return to the board’s Public Safety and Justice Committee (PSJC) in May with a refined community engagement calendar and a project work plan. Board members asked for 6‑month updates on implementation, quarterly status reports tied to the jail reform timeline, and an off‑agenda confidential report addressing recent violent fatalities in county jails. Julie Ruhlin of OCLM and community advisory board members urged the board to maintain public oversight of internal affairs and to keep victims’ advocates and people with lived experience involved.

Supervisor Susan Ellenberg moved to receive the reports on jail reform (items 9, 10 and 11), direct staff to return with the engagement plan and a CGL work plan to PSJC in May, and to have the sheriff provide confidential and public briefings as allowed on recent fatal incidents; Supervisor Otto Lee seconded. The motion passed on a 5‑0 roll call. Board members also asked staff to return with vacancy data for the Sheriff’s Office and more detail on how the assessment will benchmark custodial practice against innovative models.