Dear Sacramento Board of Supervisors and Deputy CEO Eric Jones,

We write with deep concern about the priorities of the Public Safety & Justice Agency, and the urgent need to focus policy change and public investment in areas that will reduce the jail population, improve current jail conditions and includes all stakeholders in the process, especially people with lived experience and who have been directly harmed by the Sacramento County jail system.

55% of Sacramento County jail population are released within 7 days, 82% of the jail population is pre-trial, 66% of the jail’s pretrial population has a mental health diagnosis, and approximately 37% of the jail population is Black compared to just 11% of Sacramento County residents. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for the county to decrease the jail population by leveraging county, state, and federal dollars to invest in preventative services and diversion programs. It also presents opportunity for policy changes through county ordinances to prevent the initial arrest and booking of many community members who are criminalized for their housing status, mental health status, racial identity, and/or living in poverty.

Sacramento County law enforcement agencies have had ample opportunity to prevent incarceration, decrease jail populations, and improve conditions inside the jails. The Sheriff’s Department continues to have the power to release individuals who are incarcerated. The Probation Department continues to have the power to stop incarcerating individuals for arbitrary probation violations. We hope to make it clear that our community’s definition of “negative outcomes” from the criminal legal system includes contact with law enforcement and any form of law enforcement surveillance or control.

The most recent Mays v. Sacramento lawsuit’s monitoring reports state that “by the culture of deliberate indifference to detainees’ constitutional rights, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office continues to demonstrate a lack of reasonable diligence toward the Mays Consent decree”. The consent decree monitors also make clear that all jail staff, including UC Davis Jail Psychiatric Services and Adult Correctional Health, “were not yet expected to perform at Consent Decree standards” and that there are is a general “absence of urgency” among jail management to achieve the many overdue and readily achievable changes in staff procedures that can improve treatment of incarcerated individuals in Sacramento County jails. The Public Safety and Justice Agency should take urgent action in ensuring that the recommended medical and mental health staff training and supervision protocols are implemented and followed.

Centering race and health equity in efforts to decrease the jail population will require deep collaboration on all decisions. Collaboration with impacted community members, with public health experts, and with system partners who have already started successful decarceration programs rooted in health and racial equity in Sacramento County.

This letter outlines priorities the PSJA can make to (1) Center Community Expertise and Engagement in all Decision-making, (2) Invest in Prevention and Diversion to Reduce the Jail Population, (3) Improve Sacramento County Jail Conditions, and (4) Center Race and Health Equity in all Decisions.

1. Center Community Expertise and Engagement in all Decision-making:
Individuals and communities most impacted by the Sacramento County jail system must play a leadership role in the planning and implementation of all PSJA decisions.
On August 10th 2021, the Board of Supervisors approved the creation of a committee to work alongside the PSJA:
- “NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AND ORDERED, in addition to the roles and responsibilities enumerated in the newly adopted Sacramento County Code section 2.09.600, the PSJA should work in direct collaboration with the Social Services Agency and associated departments to coordinate jail reduction and diversion efforts so that justice and health are integrated.”
- “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED AND ORDERED that in addition to assuming responsibility for the County’s lead role in the criminal justice system and providing a clear communication structure for criminal justice agencies that are outside of the County structure or have elected department heads, the PSJA shall also coordinate and collaborate with social service and health agencies, as well as community stakeholders across multiple sectors such as community based providers, advocacy organizations, philanthropy, and/or formerly incarcerated people.”
- “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED AND ORDERED, Sacramento County staff will bring back to the Board by separate resolution a proposed committee structure in order to allow for community collaboration opportunities and provide a community voice into the dialogue on decreasing the jail population, recognizing the importance of including voices of individuals with lived experiences and those most closely impacted by incarceration.”

Create a working committee of the PSJA
- This committee is critical to include all stakeholders, most of whom are not currently included in the PSJA structure.
- Our recommendations include:
- Ten (10) Community Representatives:
- Each Supervisor will appoint (2) representatives from their district. Community representatives must either be a formerly incarcerated individual or a family member or caregiver of an individual who suffers from a serious mental illness or co-occurring or substance use disorder, with emphasis on appointing community committee members who do not have existing contracts with the County.
- Ten (10) Sacramento County Department Heads (or designees):
Sacramento County Behavioral Health
Sacramento County Health Services
Sacramento County Adult Correctional Health
Sacramento County Public Defender
Sacramento County Probation Department
Sacramento County Human Assistance
Sacramento County Homeless Initiatives
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office
Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office
Sacramento County Superior Court (Presiding Judge or designee)
- Additional representatives from other stakeholder groups including, but not limited to, UC Davis Jail Psychiatric Services and relevant Sacramento County Advisory Boards and Commissions related to improving health, economic, racial, and gender equity outcomes and preventing incarceration.
- It is critical that this committee be included as part of the PSJA organizational system, be fully recognized publicly, and implemented as soon as possible.
- This working group should prioritize creating a jail population reduction strategic plan with clear goals and outcomes rooted in racial and health equity.

2. Invest in Prevention and Diversion to Reduce the Jail Population:
AB109 Realignment Funds
- Sacramento County currently receives approximately $60 Million per year in state funding that can be used to decrease the jail population by investing in Reentry housing and services that prevent recidivism.
- The Sacramento County Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) Committee has ignored the FY 2021-22 Realignment spending plan approved by the Board of Supervisors. The CCP remains unwilling to meaningfully support and fund community-based care and treatment services and continues to work in the shadows to fill probation and sheriff budgets.
- PreTrial Support and Diversion—included in 2021’s Realignment Plan priorities
- 82% of the Sacramento County jail population is Pre-Trial.
- The Public Defender’s office is the only place pretrial diversion should occur within county government because they are the only department that is able to preserve the presumption of innocence and attorney-client privilege. The Public Defender’s PreTrial Support Program has a 2% recidivism rate, focusing on connecting individuals to services through licensed social workers and needs assessments that address the root-causes of criminal accusation.

American Rescue Plan Act Funds: $301.4 Million in federal one-time funding
- Significant one-time investment in building public housing and permanent supportive housing would have incredible impacts on decreasing jail populations, as housing insecure individuals make up over 50% of all misdemeanor arrests and charges.
- Given that housing was Sacramento County’s #1 priority for investment, the majority of ARPA funding should be spent on long-term housing solutions, prioritizing the building and/or acquiring of public and permanent supportive housing units.
- Continuing and expanding Project Roomkey is an immediate need that the county should prioritize to prevent hundreds of individuals from being evicted and houseless once again.
- Significant investment in restoring capacity and expanding the Sacramento Mental Health Treatment Center would have incredible impacts on decreasing jail populations, especially for individuals with Serious Mental Illness (SMI).

Sacramento County General Fund
- Urgent, ongoing investment in preventative, decentralized community-based systems of care outside of law enforcement. This includes: violence prevention programs, harm reduction services, behavioral health services specifically for communities of color, community-based mental health centers, peer mentorship programs, housing navigation, project homekey, and youth services.
- Increase funding for record expungements and eliminate fines and fees that criminalize poverty.
- Sacramento County should be urgently investing in supportive services and diversion for people with disabilities, who have historically been criminalized and incarcerated at disproportionate rates. This includes investment in community-based inpatient psychiatric treatment centers like SCMHTC.
- Ongoing investment is needed to grow the Public Defender’s PreTrial Support Project which connects individuals to services that address the root-causes of criminal accusation while maintaining the legal rights of individuals who would otherwise be incarcerated pre-trial.

Sacramento County “Inmate Welfare Fund”
- The Board has the ability to make jail phone call and commissary costs free, as San Francisco County did in July of 2020.
- The Board should also explore its ability to influence the spending of this year’s $11 Million in revenue, which has been generated from loved ones of people inside Sacramento County jails, disproportionately impacting low-income people of color, and should therefore be spent on community-based services that directly benefit low-income communities of color in Sacramento County.
- Allowing the Sheriff’s Department to continue generating this fund further incentivizes the use of incarceration in Sacramento County.

3. Improve Sacramento County Jail Conditions
The most recent Mays v. Sacramento consent decree monitoring reports released in October of 2021 detail how:
- There are many “overdue and readily achievable” changes in staff procedures that can improve treatment of incarcerated individuals in Sacramento County jails, but there is a general “absence of urgency” among jail management and decision-makers.
- Jail staff have not read, nor understand, the consent decree requirements and that there is a general “absence of urgency to provide constitutionally adequate care” inside the jails.
- While many jail staff claim that there is “insufficient therapeutic space” in to treat and “house everyone in need of inpatient treatment”, the mental health report shows that staff training and supervision is the most pressing need and that the county can and should contract-out for inpatient mental health treatment outside of the jail setting

- It is of critical urgency for the PSJA Deputy CEO to ensure that all jail staff (including UC Davis Psychiatric Services, Adult Correctional Health, Department of Behavioral Health, and The Sheriff’s Department) are aware of May's consent decree requirements and that jail staff leadership are prioritizing comprehensive training and oversight.
- All Mays consent decree parties agree that decreasing the jail population will facilitate improved jail conditions
Recognize and honor that individuals who are incarcerated in Sacramento County jails are the experts on current jail conditions

4. Center Race & Health Equity in all Decisions
- Prioritize a Public Health and Racial Equity lens to inform the Public Safety & Justice Agency’s vision and values.
- Health and Racial Equity experts must be integrated into the planning processes of the PSJA. Success must be rooted in public health and equity outcomes.
- Redefine what success looks like for directly impacted persons, families, communities, and county staff. “Evidence-based” practices must be aligned with measurements of success that center social determinants of health and racial equity analyses.
- The August 10th resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors stated “that in its role overseeing the County’s role in the criminal justice system, the PSJA shall acknowledge the role of structural racism in the criminal justice system and ensure that racial equity is a key factor in its decision-making on matters within its control and while seeking relevant input from community stakeholders.”
- Sacramento County jail remains approximately 37% Black, while just 11% of Sacramento County residents are Black. This disproportionate rate of incarceration is a reflection of historically racist policies that have criminalized Black communities while excluding them from public investment. The PSJA should focus on improving the neighborhood-level social conditions that produce these vast racial disparities in the jail population.

We, the undersigned community organizations and individuals, are providing this letter to outline our recommended priorities of the Sacramento County Public Safety & Justice Agency and the newly hired Deputy CEO of the PSJA. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible and supporting the county in moving these priorities forward.