HomeMy WebLinkAbout20162425.tiffPresent:
WELD COUNTY
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Centennial Center, 3rd Floor, Conference Rooms A & B
915 10th Street, Greeley
Judge James Hartmann, Judge Thomas Quammen, Judge Michele Meyers,
Commissioner Mike Freeman, Rick Dill, Robb Miller, Dianna Campbell,
Hugo Sanchez, Jeff French, Kristine Cummings, Roger Ainsworth, Todd
Deutsch, Brandon Cody, Jerry Green, Dionne Sund, Doug Erler and
Kamie Cooley
Chair, Judge Hartmann, called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m.
Introduction of attendees
AGENDA
1. Meeting Minutes:
A. Judge, Thomas Quammen motioned to accept the January 12, 2016 meeting minutes with
no changes, Commissioner, Mike Freeman seconded and the motion carried.
2. Subcommittee Reports:
A. Sheriff's Office Jail Reports — Roger Ainsworth reported on Weld County Jail
Admission Information. The average daily secure population decreased 44 offenders
from 601 in 2015 to 557 in 2016 (-7.3%). The average length of stay decreased from
20.1 days to 18.3 days in 2016 (-8.9%). New charges with outstanding FTC warrants
(excluding domestic violence or DUI) increased from 26 to 42 (+61.6%). Municipal
ordinance violations increased from 32 to 43 (+34.4%). Civil emergency commitments
decreased from 32 to 23 (-28.1%). The Sheriff's Office has a good working relationship
with North Range Behavioral Health, assisting with keeping people out of jail when
appropriate. At the last meeting, Roger said he would look further into the possible
increases for arrests of persons under Probation supervision. He was able to report that
the increase was not due to changes in practices by Probation, but rather changes in the
statistics due to their new data system and the way data is now being tracked at the
Sheriff's Office. The CJAC attendees raised no concerns. Judge Quammen asked if there
were any highlights in the jail reports worth discussing further. Roger said the gender
distribution in regards to the jail population has remained steady. There are seasonal
times in the year when there is an increase in the number of arrests due to warmer
weather. It was noted there are spikes in jail utilization on Wednesdays/Thursdays, since
these are normally inmate transport days.
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B. Work Release/EHM-Newly appointed Alternative Programs Director, Dianna Campbell
reported data comparison data between 2015 to the current year for Work Release. The
active client count in Work Release is 170 clients. The number of scheduled new
orientations at Work Release has decreased, while seeing an increase in the overall
appearance rate of clients for their first orientation. There has been a decrease in
successful completions due to an increase of absconders for the same date range (10 in
2015 vs. 16 so far in 2016). Currently, there are 68 offenders on EHM, which has
remained steady. The successful completion rate remains steady for the same date range,
noting 6 regressions in 2015 vs. 10 so far in 2016. Judge Meyer asked if the department
is open to consider changing the policy regarding regressions in Work Release. Doug
Erler said yes, discussion to consider changing policy is certainly viable and he and
Dianna are receptive to return certain offenders to Work Release if there is agreement by
all parties. Dianna added that all processes at Work Release are under review and being
adjusted to reflect the change of the program from the Sheriff's Office to the Justice
Services Department.
C. Pretrial Services Reports — Doug Erler introduced Kamie Cooley, newly appointed
Pretrial Services Supervisor. Kamie previously held this position, stepped down for
family reasons and was recently appointed when Dianna Campbell moved to Alternative
Programs. Kamie reported on statistics for the Pretrial Services (PTS) program for the
first quarter of 2016. She reported an average year-to-date public safety rate of 86.0%,
which means 14% of the defendants supervised cases had new alleged charges filed. The
technical compliance rate is 92.8%, which means 5.2% of the defendants supervised
cases (bonds) were revoked or modified, most notably for positive urinalyses, missed
urinalyses and/or lost contact. The court appearance rate is 84.9%, which means 15.1%
of the defendant closed supervision cases did not appear for a future court hearing and a
warrant was issued. Pretrial Services completed 727 Bail Reports, a report with
incorporated risk -assessments (CPAT) and interview to assist Judicial Officers with
pretrial release decisions. Of the bondable new arrestees, 72% were interviewed, which
marks a significant completion rate increase from the previous year. Of the Bail Report
recommendations submitted to Judicial Officers, Pretrial Services recommended 68% for
unsecured release and a 93% recommendation for pretrial supervision as an additional
condition of bond. Judge Quammen inquired in the stability of the assessed court
agreement rate as compared to the previous year. Dianna reported the agreement rate is
comparable to the previous year; the agreement rate tends to be lower when a Personal
Recognizance bond is recommended; however, the agreement rate tends to trend higher
when no Personal Recognizance is recommended.
On the supervision side of Pretrial Services, the program is maintaining an average daily
population of 871 defendants under pretrial supervision in the community with an
average of 198 new monthly intakes and an average of 224 monthly case closures. Judge
Quammen asked if the active supervised caseload is manageable. Dianna reported the
numbers have remained steady and are manageable. In 2015, Pretrial Services was
allocated two (2) full time employees and a new database system, which has helped to
maintain overall workloads. Dionne Sund asked why the percentage of revocations based
on PTS Complaint Affidavits fluctuates. The DA's office motioned the Court for
revocation based on PTS Complaints Affidavits 42 times out of 62 submitted (68%) in
comparison to last month's 77%. Kamie and Dianna explained that this statistic is based
on closed cases, which is more than likely causing the percentage to fluctuate. They also
reported that a new electronic filing process was put into place in February for
submission of reports to the DA's office. This process has helped efficiencies to both
offices. Judge Hartmann inquired if PTS' requests to remove defendants from
supervision is typically granted or denied. Due to a workload issue, Pretrial Services is
not requesting the Court to remove pretrial supervision very often; however, when
submitted, the Courts are not typically denying requests. The criteria to request to remove
a defendant from pretrial supervision was set by the Pretrial Services Advisory Board and
is in place and very few cases fall into that criteria. However, Kamie and Dianna
clarified that the Court, when considering removal or modification of a bond condition or
pretrial supervision, often requests Status Letters. Pretrial Services is supervising
defendants 54% on secured release and 46% on unsecured release; there has been a
notable increase in unsecured release bonds. Judge Hartmann highlighted that about 7%
of pretrial supervised cases are Summons.
Action Items
3. Consider Court Date Notification Program (Pilot):
A. Judge Hartmann introduced the sub -committee consisting of himself, Karen Salaz, Kris
Cummings, Rick Dill, and Doug Erler for exploration of implementing a Court Date
Notification Program. This committee put together a written proposal and piloted a group
of 24 randomly selected defendants who were scheduled to appear in Division A (first
appearance for traffic and misdemeanor cases). Typically, Division A has a FTA rate of
approximately 10-15%. Of the 1069 defendants scheduled to appear this year thus far,
211 defendants have failed to appear in this division (about 20%). Court Clerk, Sharon
Benson was assigned to pilot the effort to perform court reminder calls by securing a
phone number for each defendant from their issued citations and calling each defendant
3 -days prior to their court date. A spreadsheet was provided depicting the case number,
person's name, contact type, telephone number, court date and time and court
appearance. Kris spoke more about the project and its outcomes. Twenty four
defendants were randomly selected and called by Ms. Benson. Only 1 of the 24
defendants failed to appear in court of those selected cases. The defendant who did fail
to appear, Sharon was able to leave a voicemail message. One of the 24 defendants
required an interpreter as the primary language was Spanish. Doug had received court
reminder data from established programs in Jefferson and Arapahoe County and each
showed the positive impact of speaking with a defendant and their appearance to a future
court date. Arapahoe County showed an incremental appearance rate based on the type
of contact. Mesa County is currently implementing an automated system to remind
defendants about their court hearings in one of their Court divisions. Rick Dill
mentioned that FTA warrants in Weld County have increased and are occupying jail beds
(16% of all bookings at the Weld County Jail were exclusively for FTA warrants). He
believes implementing a Court Date Notification Program in Weld County would provide
cost savings to the county and efficiencies for our Courts. The projected population being
studied are defendants issued citations and/or summons, as these cases tend to have no
other supervision (i.e. from an attorney or bondsman). The gap in time when the
citation/summons was issued in proximity to the scheduled court hearing was also noted.
There was discussion as to the cost comparison between an FTE and an automated
system. The sub -committee considered several options and found that data supports a
better response from defendants when a live caller makes the contact. The literature also
supports a live caller model. There was an inquiry where the FTE position might be
lodged, the Clerk's Office (Courts) or perhaps in the County's Justice Services
Department. In Jefferson County, the position is lodged in their Sheriff's Office, in
Arapahoe, Larimer and Mesa Counties, this function is lodged in their respective Justice
Services Departments. Judge Quammen mentioned that he instructs defendants in his
courtroom to write down their next court date and time before they leave his courtroom.
The CJAC supported having this pilot project continue its work and thanked Sharon
Benson for her work. Kris agreed to continue to compile data and report updates at the
July CJAC meeting. Commissioner, Mike Freeman sought clarification on the timeline
and a possible recommendation made to the BOCC. Judge Hartmann felt confident that a
formal recommendation could be made to the BOCC soon after the July meeting and only
if the CJAC approves such recommendation. Commissioner Freeman said this timeline
would work.
4. Nomination/Election of CJAC Officer
A. Judge Hartmann stated that election for CJAC Officers are past due. The two offices are
Chair and Vice -Chair, the term is two years but persons can continue to serve as
nominated and elected by the CJAC. Currently Chief Judge, James Hartmann is the
Chair and Doug Erler with the Justice Services Department is the Vice -Chair. Doug
Erler nominated Judge Hartman for Chair, Roger Ainsworth seconded the nomination,
Judge Hartmann accepted. Judge, Thomas Quammen nominated Doug Erler for Vice
Chair, and Commissioner Freeman seconded the nomination, Doug accepted. While the
CJAC recognized some awkwardness of Doug's role to provide administrative support to
the CJAC and serving as its Vice Chair, they ultimately concluded that he being the Vice
Chair was effective. The motions passed unanimously. Judge Hartmann asked Doug to
flag the January 2017 meeting (or as defined in the CJAC Bylaws) to review CJAC
officer assignments.
5. Roundtable
A. Roger Ainsworth introduced two (2) new lieutenants at the Sheriff's Office, Brandon
Cody and Todd Deutsch.
B. Judge Hartmann discussed the court renovation project to the Centennial Center and
outside courtyard. Construction will soon start to remodel the two entrances to require
all visitors to be screened through security. Currently, there is no security screening
for visitors going directly to the Clerk windows. The Court Information Center will
be moved into the old Commissioner Meeting room. Outside, new concrete will be
poured to improve all walkways. Everyone expressed excitement over the project,
saying it will greatly improve safety to occupants in the Centennial Center building
and overall provide work efficiencies. Thank you to the Board of Weld County
Commissioners for funding this project.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m. The next CJAC meeting will
be Tuesday July 12, 2016 at 12:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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Reviewed by,
Kamie Cooley Doug Erler
Pretrial Services Supervisor, Weld County Director, Weld County Justice Services
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