HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 04152003 - C83 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
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COUNTY
FROM: Jahn Sweeten, County Administrator ;t _ -•
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DATE: April 15 2003 • f 4' ' �+
SUBJECT: Grand Jury Report No. 0303--It's Time To Improve
The Prisoner Transportation and Booking Process
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATION(S):
RECEIVE the Grand Jury Report No. 0303 entitled "It's Time To Improve the Prisoner
Transportation And Booking Process" and REFER it to the County Administrator's Office for
response.
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: "AYES SIGNATURE: -
RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE„ ROVE OTHER
SIGNATURE(S):
ACS OF BOARD l APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED Xx OTHER
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A
UNANIMOUS(ABSENT TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN
AYES: NOES: ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED
ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ON MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
'bISRTICT III SEAT VACANT SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN.
Contact:Julie Enea,Sr.Deputy CAO ATTESTED April 15, 2003
JOHN SWEETEN,CLERK OF
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
cc: CAC}
BY DEPUTY
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A REPORT BY
THE 2002-03 CONTRA COSTA COUNTY GRAND JURY
725 Court Street
Martinez, California 94553
Report No. 0303
IT'S TIME TO IMPROVE THE PRISONER TRANSPORTATION
AND BOOKING PROCESS
APPROVED BY THE GRAND JURY:
Date. 400e,
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MIRMA. AROSE
GRAND JURY FOREMAN
ACCEPTED FOR FILING:
Date.
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PET R L. SPINETTA
JU GE OF THE SUPE OR COURT
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY REPORT NO. 0303
It's Time to Improve the Prisoner Transportation and Booking Process
TO: Sheriff-Coroner
Board of Supervisors
BACKGROUND
All county arrestees who are to be detained for more than a few hours are booked at the County's
Main Detention Facility(MDF) in Martinez. Police Chiefs of the various communities within
the county have for many years complained of the time required for this process.
Generally, the trip to Martinez means a local police officer is taken off the beat, thus reducing the
number of officers in the field. Depending on distance, traffic and the number of prisoners
waiting to be booked at the MDF, the time required away from the precinct can sometimes run to
4 hours or more. This is an especially big problem for smaller communities where only two or
three officers may be on duty at one time.
The West County Detention Facility (WCDF) located in Richmond opened in 1991 with a
booking area included in the building. This booking area remains unused. The main reason
given for not using this booking area is the lack of 24 hour medical coverage.
FINDINGS
1. Some, but not all, law enforcement agencies have local holding cells.
2. All booking into the County's detention facilities is done in Martinez.
3. The WCDF has a designated booking area that has never been put into operation.
4. The Board of Supervisors has allocated funds to provide 24-hour medical
coverage at the WCDF, starting in January 2003.
5. Each local agency has the responsibility for transporting prisoners to Martinez for
booking. Usually a sworn officer delivers the prisoners to the MDF. A few
agencies use non-sworn police assistants for this duty.
6. Some 32,000 arrestees are booked at the MDF annually. Under the best of
conditions the time for an officer from the East or West end of the county to
transport and book a prisoner is 2 hours. With MDF as the only county booking
facility, it often gets "jammed up". This, plus the vagaries of traffic, can mean
stretching the time to 4 hours and more that an officer is away from his local
community.
7. There is no coordinated prisoner transportation system in the county.
8. A large number of the local agencies have stated their desire for a coordinated
prisoner transportation system and have indicated willingness to contribute to the
cost.of such system.
9. All arresting agencies must use the Sheriff's booking form and fill it out before
an arrestee will be accepted at the MDF. Many agencies also have booking forms
of their own.
10. There is duplication in the booking process in that many agencies book prisoners
locally with booking done again at the MDF.
11. There is no modern electronic means of transferring or sharing booking
information between the MDF and the local jurisdictions.
12. The "live scan" fingerprinting system is used by many local agencies. The MDF
can access this information, thus eliminating the need to fingerprint again in
Martinez.
13. The local arresting agency is responsible for being sure there is no medical issue
with an arrestee before delivering the person to Martinez. This also adds to the
time the arresting officer is away from the local beat.
14. No data is currently available as to the location of inmate arrests (the Sheriffs
Department is working to change the system so it can get this data). However,
senior law enforcement officials estimate that at least 50% of those booked in
Martinez come from West County.
CONCLUSIONS
1. An inordinate amount of time is required of local police officers in transporting
arrestees to Martinez and waiting for the booking to be completed.
2. A coordinated countywide prisoner transportation system would allow these
officers to remain in their local communities.
3. Public safety is negatively impacted by the large number of hours spent by law
enforcement officers in transporting and booking prisoners.
4. The opening of the West County Detention Facility booking area would be a great
boon to the law enforcement agencies in West County.
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5. Booking is a paper intensive process with a plethora of booking forms used by the
various law enforcement agencies leading to a lot of duplication of effort.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The 2002-2003 Grand Jury makes the following recommendations to the Contra Costa County
Sheriff-Coroner and to the Board of Supervisors:
1. Find a way to get the WCDF booking area open and in operation within 12
months.
2. Form a transportation commission to investigate the establishment of a
countywide prisoner transportation system. This commission should:
- include representatives of local law enforcement agencies;
- undertake a feasibility study including a cost/benefits analysis;
- determine the willingness of each local agency to contribute to the cost;
and
- develop deliverables and timetables for both the feasibility study and an
implementation plan if the feasibility study result is positive.
3. Form a group to determine how to:
simplify and standardize the booking forms used by all agencies;
establish a modern electronic means of sharing booking information
between the local agencies and the MDF/WCDF; and
develop deliverables and a timetable for this process simplification and its
implementation.
4. The Sheriff to make public progress reports on the above three items to the Board
of Supervisors at six month intervals.
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