New Jail Talks Continue

The  Tuesday night wasn’t just a pretense county officials soliciting community feedback. The Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) collected dozens of residents’ comments to incorporate them into its realignment plan that it will ultimately submit to the Board of Supervisors. 

On February 3, the CCP will make its draft plan available online, complete with residents’ suggestions and input. The plan will be open for comments until February 8 when a final plan is drafted.

The plan is required from all counties, which have to respond to Governor Jerry Brown's realignment bill, AB 109, that transfers 30,000 non-violent, non-serious, and non-sex offenders from state prisons to local county jails. The goal was to reduce the 70 percent recidivism rate using evidence-based practices from the local level.

To date, 38 counties have had their Board of Supervisors approve a plan.

Though nearly all plans delineate a background and history; recommendations; implementation strategies; and a budget; the specifics from Los Angeles County to Contra Costa Count vary drastically.

The 19-page Contra Costa County plan has a projected annual budget of $8.1 million and drills down into specifics such as how often staff will meet with formerly incarcerated people that are being electronically monitored. The 64-page Los Angeles County plan utilizes flow charts to explain how the supervision of formerly incarcerated people will take place.

The San Mateo County plan could be a hybrid or something completely different than other counties’ plans, explained Chief Probation Office Stuart Forrest.

“These town halls are necessary to incorporate ideas that we haven’t even thought of yet,” Forrest explained.

He said that he was surprised by the attendance of formerly incarcerated individuals who cared enough to come to the county center.

“We felt really good about that,” he said. “It would even be beneficial to put together an advisory committee of formerly incarcerated individuals.”

District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe echoed the need for more community engagement. He said it was easy for those invested to come to these types of meetings, but he wanted to reach out more to the “silent majority.”

“Just as politicians hold local coffee chats, we could do the same,” Wagstaffe said. “Explain to them why their safety could be at stake. Do they feel comfortable with their kids biking to school?”

Jail realignment and the influx of more inmates affects the entire community and it’s a matter of educating people about this reality, he said.

Many residents who did weigh in at the meeting were strongly against the . They saw it as a means of imprisoning more people who instead should be receiving treatment and services to re-integrate them into their communities as productive members of society.

“[The new jail] goes against the goal that realignment could take,” said Emily Harris of CURB (Californians United for a Responsible Budget). “This could go towards re-entry services rather than more cages to lock people up.”

Manuel Fontaine, a formerly incarcerated person from Daly City, traveled down to Redwood City to vehemently oppose the new jail.

“I will die, just as I live, to see that the jail is not built in San Mateo County,” Fontaine said. “If we build another jail, let’s build a college or schools first.”

But Sheriff Greg Munks explained his legal obligation to provide current inmates, particularly at the, better sanitary conditions. The Grand Jury has come down on San Mateo County for its over capacity of inmates, a violation of their rights.

“These women are kept in deplorable conditions, at times at 200% the rate of capacity,” Munks said. “I have a moral obligation to get rid of that facility.”

Forrest added that he had not anticipated such opposition to the jail.

“People think there is no role for a new jail,” he said. “They see it as something to be fought.”

But, he added, San Mateo County has one of the lowest detention rates in the state.

“Those people who don't need to be incarcerated are not incarcerated,” Forrest said. “But, I will never apologize for us having to arrest anyone.”