Report 2020-102 Recommendations

To ensure that county jails identify inmates with mental illnesses and provide them with adequate mental health care, Alameda should immediately begin conducting mental health screening of all inmates upon admission to the county's jails.

To ensure that county jails have sufficient information to determine appropriates housing and supervision of inmates with mental illness, by June 2021 Alameda should develop a process requiring mental health providers to share with jails the mental health status of all inmates, such as whether they have a mild, moderate, or serious mental illness.

To ensure that it appropriately follows up on inmate deaths and works to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future, Alameda should implement its updated inmate death follow-up process by June 2021.

Unless the Legislature clarifies its intent otherwise, to ensure that the counties prudently and appropriately spend realignment funds, the Partnership Committee at Alameda should, starting with its next annual budget, review and make budget recommendations to its board of supervisors for all realignment accounts, including the accounts that fund non-law enforcement departments and community-based organizations. Further, Alameda should ensure that it budgets all realignment funds to eliminate excessive surpluses in realignment accounts and prevent future surpluses beyond a reasonable reserve.

To ensure that the programs and services funded by public safety realignment funds are effective, beginning immediately, Alameda should conduct evaluations of the effectiveness of its programs and services at least every three years.

To ensure that the county reports accurate and consistent information to the Corrections Board, beginning with its next annual report, Alameda should consistently report all law enforcement and non-law enforcement expenditures funded through the accounts that constitute public safety realignment.

To comply with the State's jail capacity standards, Fresno should take steps to address overcrowding in its jails, while ensuring public safety.

To ensure that county jails have sufficient information to determine appropriate housing and supervision of inmates with mental illness, by June 2021 Fresno should develop a process requiring mental health providers to share with jails the mental health status of all inmates, such as whether they have a mild, moderate, or serious mental illness.

Unless the Legislature clarifies its intent otherwise, to ensure that the counties prudently and appropriately spend realignment funds, the Partnership Committee at Fresno should, starting with its next annual budget, review and make budget recommendations to its board of supervisors for all realignment accounts, including the accounts that fund non-law enforcement departments and community-based organizations. Further, Fresno should ensure that it budgets all realignment funds to eliminate excessive surpluses in realignment accounts and prevent future surpluses beyond a reasonable reserve.

To ensure that the programs and services funded by public safety realignment funds are effective, beginning immediately, Fresno should conduct evaluations of the effectiveness of its programs and services at least every three years.

To ensure that the county reports accurate and consistent information to the Corrections Board, beginning with its next annual report, Fresno should consistently report all law enforcement and non-law enforcement expenditures funded through the accounts that constitute public safety realignment.

To ensure that inmates serving lengthy terms in county jails have adequate educational and exercise opportunities, the Legislature should amend state law to limit the time inmates can spend in county jails to terms of no more than three years. In the event that the total sentence exceeds three years, its should require that the person serve the sentence in state prison.

To ensure consistency between state allocations and county accounting records, the Legislature should amend state law to require counties to separate mental health funding for public safety realignment from previously enacted mental health funding.

To ensure that the counties and the Corrections Board are aware of their oversight responsibilities and resolve inconsistencies we identified from county to county, the Legislature should amend state law to clearly identify the specific accounts in the Local Revenue Fund 2011 it requires county Partnership Committees to plan for and oversee and the Corrections Board to include in its annual reports to the Legislature.

To comply with the State's jail capacity standards, Los Angeles should take steps to address overcrowding in its jails, while ensuring public safety.

Unless the Legislature clarifies its intent otherwise, to ensure that the counties prudently and appropriately spend realignment funds, the Partnership Committee at Los Angeles should, starting with its next annual budget, review and make budget recommendations to its board of supervisors for all realignment accounts, including the accounts that fund non-law enforcement departments and community-based organizations. Further, Los Angeles should ensure that it budgets all realignment funds to eliminate excessive surpluses in realignment accounts and prevent future surpluses beyond a reasonable reserve.

To ensure that the programs and services funded by public safety realignment funds are effective, beginning immediately, Los Angeles should conduct evaluations of the effectiveness of its programs and services at least every three years.

To ensure that the county reports accurate and consistent information to the Corrections Board, beginning with its next annual report, Los Angeles should consistently report all law enforcement and non-law enforcement expenditures funded through the accounts that constitute public safety realignment.

To ensure that the county Partnership Committees report consistent and complete, and comparable information regarding their public safety realignment funding and activities, by September 2021 the Corrections Board should develop and distribute guidance to counties of its expectations for reporting financial information related to all public safety realignment accounts.

To ensure that the county Partnership Committees report consistent and complete, and comparable information regarding their public safety realignment funding and activities, by September 2021 the Corrections Board should develop and implement a process to review and analyze the information that counties provide about their realignment activities and expenditures each year.

To ensure that the county Partnership Committees report consistent and complete, and comparable information regarding their public safety realignment funding and activities, by September 2021 the Corrections Board should develop definitions for terms its asks counties to report on, including assault on staff and inmate risk level.

To comply with state law, the Corrections Board should include the cost of bringing jail facilities up to state standards in its biennial jail facility reports to the Governor and the Legislature, beginning with its 2018-2020 biennial report.

To ensure that the counties' detention facilities address health, fire, and life safety deficiencies in a timely manner and that the Governor and the Legislature are aware of these deficiencies, beginning with its next biennial report, the Corrections Board should incorporate inspection information that the state fire marshal and county departments of public health provide to counties into its corrective action process and its reports to the Governor and the Legislature.

To ensure that it provides state leadership and promotes best practices for counties to use, by March 2022 the Corrections Board should conduct an independent analysis of best practices, such as effective practices for restitution or rehabilitative programs, related to public safety realignment and publish the results.

To ensure that it provides state leadership and promotes best practices for counties to use, by March 2022 the Corrections Board should categorize the best practices it lists on its website for ease of reference to the counties.

To ensure that it provides state leadership and promotes best practices for counties to use, by March 2022 the Corrections Board should determine common county needs stemming from realignment and promote specific best practices that meet the common needs of counties, including best practices developed and adopted by California counties.