Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Jail Reform topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Work group outlines plan to reduce jail population by 83,220 bed days to close County Jails 3 and 4
Summary
An eight-month work group recommended a mix of policy, capital and programmatic strategies to reduce jail bed days by 83,220 annually (average daily reduction about 228 beds) through diversion, increased treatment capacity, and data improvements; the commission heard co-chairs Sheriff Hennessy and Roma Guy describe consensus across criminal justice and community stakeholders.
Deputy Director Colleen Chawla presented the work group27s report on options to "re-envision" the jail replacement project and to close County Jails 3 and 4 without building equivalent new jails. The report set a target of reducing 83,220 jail bed days per year (an average daily reduction of roughly 228 people) using a mix of interventions: added treatment and conservatorship beds, expanded pretrial diversion programs (including LEAD), crisis diversion and joint response teams, and policy measures such as weekend charging and advocacy for state-level bail reform.
Co-chairs Sheriff V. Hennessy and Roma Guy emphasized the consensus achieved across community advocates, criminal justice agencies and city departments. The presentation showed that a relatively small share of inmates (those with long stays) account for a large share of bed days and that a mix of programmatic and capital investments (e.g., 47-bed psychiatric respite, medical respite, locked psychiatric beds and residential substance use treatment) would together move toward the 83,220 reduction goal. Chawla noted a $5.9 million federal grant to extend the Community Assessment and Services Center to 24/7 operations and to pilot LEAD in Tenderloin and Mission neighborhoods with partners including GLIDE and Felton Institute.
Why it matters: closing outdated, seismically unsafe jails and reducing incarceration are priorities tied to public safety, racial equity and behavioral health. The report links operational tactics (screening, diversion, reentry plans) with capital planning and stressed the need to improve data systems across criminal justice partners to measure progress.
Next steps: the city has included new beds in the FY17-18 budget that could partially reduce jail bed days (estimated ~5,000 bed days impact); the work group recommended returning in a year to report progress and refine projections. Commissioners asked for further data on bail-setting variance, recidivism impacts and improved cross-departmental data sharing; presenters noted data limitations and planned follow-up.
