HomeMy WebLinkAbout20163201.tiffPresent:
WELD COUNTY
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Centennial Center, 3rd Floor, Conference Rooms A & B
915 10`" Street, Greeley
Judge James Hartmann, Judge Michele Meyer, Commissioner Sean
Conway, Rick Dill, Robb Miller, Dianna Campbell, Kristine Cummings,
Roger Ainsworth, Donnie Patch, Dionne Sund, Karen Salaz, Marci
Hoffman, Jeff Valerio, Jim Merson, Craig Miller, Doug Erler and Kamie
Cooley
Chair, Judge Hartmann, called the meeting to order at 12:10 p.m.
Introduction of attendees.
AGENDA
1. Meeting Minutes:
A. Karen Salaz motioned to accept the April 12, 2016 meeting minutes with no changes, Robb
Miller seconded and the motion carried.
2. Subcommittee Reports:
A. Sheriffs Office Jail Reports — Roger Ainsworth reported on Weld County Jail
Admission Information. The Probation violation warrants decreased from 356 in 2015 to
316 in 2016 (-11.2%). Roger believes this is due to the change in reporting systems at
the jail. The Failure to Comply warrant arrests increased from 143 in 2015 to 148 in
2016 (+3.5%). The average length of stay decreased by 3 days from 2015. Roger
believes the average length of stay for the jail population has decreased because of the
increase in PR bonds being issued by the Courts. The adult jail bookings and adult jail
releases have increased. Doug Erler commented that it would be interesting to see an
average length of stay figure for the pretrial population at the jail. Roger said he would
look into this capability. Judge Hartmann commented the increase in bookings this year,
yet the average length of stay decreased.
B. Work Release/EHM - Dianna Campbell, Alternative Programs Director, thanked the
Sheriff's office for their collaboration during Work Release's transition from their office
to the Justice Services Department. She then reported data for the program, focusing on
program performance and supervision data. Dianna reported the program is averaging a
96% reporting for first day orientation rate, 34% of those clients being transported from
the jail and 66% self -reports. Forty three percent of the population's charges are for
alcohol -related traffic offenses. The program's ADP is 155 clients. The program is
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maintaining a 65% successful completion rate and a 3% court ordered release. Of the
unsuccessful completions, 6% were for absconders/walk-aways and 21% regressions to
secured custody. Regression types include but are not limited to 22% out of place of
assignment, 27% positive breathalyzers and 22% positive urinalyses. Karen Salaz asked
for the definition of intermediate sanction(s). Dianna reports those are write-ups and/or
warnings to clients for in house violations that are used as sanctions prior to
regression(s). Judge Hartmann asked if the program is tracking the correlation between
intermediate sanctions and regressions. In other words, how effective are the
intermediate sanctions for getting people back on track to avoid regressions? Dianna
reported that this statistic is not being tracked; however, she believes factors like the type
of individual and type of violation would have an effect on that data. Judge Hartmann
thanked Dianna for the Work Release statistics and requested an electronic copy be
emai led to him. Work Release also oversees the Electronic Home Monitoring (EHM)
Program. She reported their orientation rate at 94%, and 52% of those placements
involved non -alcohol related offenses. The end of month client count for the EHM
population was 57. The successful completion rate is 89%, with I% absconding and 9%
regression to secured custody. Of those regressions, 79% were for technical violations
and 21% for alleged new crimes. Doug Erler explained that the EHM program falls
under the auspice of Work Release and that services are delivered by contracted vendor
BI, Inc. Work Release and BI work together to report information to the Court. Rick Dill
pointed out that very few jurisdictions have similar alternative type programs. He
believes we have an advantage compared to other jurisdictions in regards to program
performance and pointed out that alternative programs are valuable in Weld County due
to its utilization and cost savings. While Weld County's alternative programs are doing
well, he commented that Mesa County might be closing their Work Release program. For
20+ years, their Criminal Justice Services Department operated Mesa County's Work
Release program. It was returned to their Sheriff's Office last year and this year, that
Sheriff has asked the program be returned to the Criminal Justice Services Department.
However, because utilization has been poor, that department has recommended the
program close. Karen Salaz asked if EHM was a court order or enforced at Work
Releases' discretion. Doug reported it is a court order (i.e. sentence to jail, with EHM
authorized) and the process is efficient.
Dianna also commented that the daily fee at Work Release increased from $14 to $15.
Doug said the increased fee has, in a weird way, increased collections at Work Release.
The number of new intakes has dipped a bit but Doug and Dianna have had discussions
with Judge Quammen and Judge Meyer and they are slowly seeing an uptick in
placement orders. Doug affirmed that both Work Release and EHM could handle more
clients. Dianna is now sending a Capacity Report to Judge Hartmann weekly and Judge
Hartmann is passing it along to the Bench. Jim Merson from the PD's office, asked about
the different capabilities of a GPS device. Dianna explained the differences between
GPS, TAD and RF units. Jim asked if possible to determine how many TAD units vs.
GPS units are being ordered by the court. Dianna said she would try to collect that data
for the next meeting.
C. Pretrial Services Reports — Kamie Cooley, Pretrial Services Supervisor, reported on
statistics for the Pretrial Services (PTS) program January -June 2016. She reported on the
average year-to-date public safety rate of 79.5% (this was later pointed out to be a typo
and was corrected to 84.3%), which means 15.7% of the defendants supervised cases had
new alleged charges filed. The technical compliance rate is 91.5%, which means 8.5% of
the defendant supervised cases were revoked most notably for positive urinalyses, missed
urinalyses and/or lost contact. The court appearance rate is 84.5%, which means 15.5%
of the closed supervision cases did not appear for a court hearing and a warrant was
issued. Pretrial Services completed 1,533 Bail Reports (average of 256 each month).Of
the Bail Report recommendations submitted to Judicial Officers, Pretrial Services
recommended for 71% unsecured release type and 93% for pretrial supervision as an
additional condition of bond.
On the supervision side of Pretrial Services, the program is maintaining an average daily
population of 869 defendants under pretrial supervision with an average of 191 new
monthly intakes and an average of 213 monthly case closures. Pretrial Services is
supervising an average of 54% on secured release and 46% on unsecured release, with a
notable increase in unsecured bonds. Donnie Patch with the WCSO pointed out that it
appears there was a typo for the public safety rate and Kamie said she would look into
this. Addendum: Kamie did find a typo and corrected that statistic. Judge Meyer asked if
the TAD unit was being enforced as a form of substance use monitoring if/when not
specifically being ordered by the Court (intermediate sanction). Kamie said yes, the
TAD Unit is enforced as an intermediate sanction at times, without monitoring curfew
and/or whereabouts if electronic monitoring was not specifically ordered by the Court.
Jim Merson asked if there is any future technology that will test continuously for
controlled substances. Dionne Sund reports that ICCS utilizes Sleep Time, which
monitors a person's drug use during sleep patterns, but is unaware of other emerging
technologies.
Action Items
3. Court Date Notification Program:
A. Judge Hartman introduced the sub -committee consisting of himself, Karen Salaz,
Kristine Cummings, Rick Dill, and Doug Erler for exploration to implement a Court
Date Notification program. This team put together a proposal and piloted a test group
of randomly selected defendants who were scheduled to appear in Division A (first
appearance for traffic and misdemeanor cases). Kris gave a brief summary of the
data collected and it was obtained and outcomes for the month of May. Court Clerk,
Sharon Benson was assigned to pilot the program by securing a phone number for
each defendant from the issued citation and calling each defendant prior to his or her
next court date. Contact types included 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. Judge Hartmann pointed out the proposal, project
outline, graphs and charts showing positive outcomes from the project. For May, the
outcomes showed 692 people were not contacted and 331 contacted. Of those who
were not contacted, the FTA rate was 25.7% and those who were contacted had a
10% FTA rate. For June, 573 people were not contacted and 262 people were
contacted. Of those who were not contacted, the FTA rate was 26% and those who
were contacted had a 13.4% FTA rate. With that data, Judge Hartmann was able to
project percentages over a one-year period to show that a decline in FTA rate by 700
people would occur. Kris reported the people that did receive the calls they were well
received. Marci Hoffman with the Courts pointed out that the court dates set in
Division A are set months in advance, often causing defendants to forget about court.
Karan Salaz pointed out that the legibility of phone numbers on the tickets are a
barrier for this type of project. Doug said this is an area of concern in other
jurisdictions with their call reminder programs. Rick Dill reported the pilot was
showing cost effectiveness and projected a $75,000 savings to local agencies
including the 1911' Judicial District, police departments and sheriff's office transports.
Rick stated the project would potentially eliminate 12,000 warrants (10% of the FTA
bookings) annually. The data collected by the sub -committee mirrors data collected
in other jurisdictions that have a call reminder program..ludge Hartmann pointed out
that if a message was left during the pilot stages, a call back number was left and if
there was no answer, a second call was being made to the defendant when time
permitted. Judge Hartmann noted the sub -committee only focused on Division A;
however, there are several divisions that might benefit from the program if
implemented. Judge Hartmann stated if the program is implemented, he plans to meet
with Weld County Chiefs of Police to let them know how important it is for officers
to write legibly phone numbers on tickets issued. It was noted that officers are often
pulled from their regular duties to transport FTA warrants. Craig Miller from the
Greeley Police Department reported there while some agencies have automated
systems that enters a defendant's phone number, not all systems have these abilities.
Judge Meyer noted that most defendants who are being jailed for the FTA's in
Division A are being charged for speeding or minor traffic offenses because they are
forgetting their court dates. She also reported the FTA rates are having an impact on
bond hearings. Bond has been set on nearly half of these cases and those bonds are
not being re -set because a different Judge already set the bond. Craig with GPD
supports the project. Judge Hartmann asked for a motion to support sending this
matter to the Weld County Board of Commissioners to consider implementation in
2017. The CJAC voted unanimously in support of said motion. Doug said he could
facilitate the CJAC recommendation. Commissioner Sean Conway asked Doug to
ensure Judge Hartmann is made aware to attend the applicable work session when the
Board starts the process to set the 2017 County budget.
4. 19`h JD Probation Department SPACKLE Program- Mary Nagler and Esperanza Ortiz
A. This item was tabled for the next meeting, October 11, 2016.
5. Roundtable- No updates
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:55 p.m. The next CJAC meeting will
be Tuesday October 11, 2016.
Respectfully submitted,
r
Kamie Cooley
Reviewed by,
Doug Erler
Pretrial Services Supervisor, Weld County Director, Weld County Justice Services
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