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County reports progress and limits on Maze consent-decree compliance; sheriff calls for new jail capacity
Summary
County officials on May 13 reported incremental progress toward compliance with the Maze consent decree but warned that facility capacity limits and changes in law make previously recommended population-reduction targets difficult to achieve.
County staff and justice partners provided an update May 13 on the county’s work to comply with the Maze consent decree and on a jail population‑reduction plan. The presentation outlined staffing, policy and facility investments while acknowledging continued compliance gaps and operational constraints.
Deputy County Executive Eric Jones told the board the consent decree includes about 320 provisions across six remedial areas (ADA access, mental‑health care, medical care, restrictive housing, discipline and suicide prevention) and that the county’s most recent self‑report found substantial compliance with 207 provisions, partial compliance with 106, and noncompliance with seven provisions tied to ADA pathways, negative‑pressure isolation, specialty medical timelines and prescription procedures.
Jones and other presenters described several measures taken since 2018: additions of roughly 440 full‑time equivalent positions across departments tied to custody and medical services; construction and equipment projects to improve conditions of confinement; expanded community behavioral‑health options such as the 24/7 mobile Community Wellness Response Team and Core outreach centers; and expansion of pretrial monitoring and diversion screening to reduce length of stay and returns to custody.
At the same time, the presenters said demographic and legal changes complicate population reduction targets. A consultant study in 2022 suggested a potential reduction target of roughly 592 average daily population (ADP) if a comprehensive set of reforms were fully implemented; staff said later law changes (including expanded mental‑health diversion and recent voter‑backed measures) plus the end of pandemic-era releases and county population growth make that target unlikely to be met in the near term.
Sheriff Jim Cooper called for increased bed capacity and said the main jail, originally sized for a smaller population, cannot be retrofitted to meet current needs. Police chiefs and city officials — including Folsom Mayor Sarah Aquino and a Folsom police commander — told the board that long booking times at the main jail have tied up patrol officers for hours, harming response capacity and public safety; they urged county and Adult Correctional Health (ACH) staff to work with local agencies on process and facility solutions.
The board directed staff to continue facility planning studies, to pursue prioritized short‑term improvements and to return with reports. Jones said the county issued an RFQ to study facility conditions, population projections and operations and will return with ranked recommendations by a county timetable that aims to bring recommendations to the board by December 2026.
