HomeMy WebLinkAbout20142114.tiff WELD COUNTY
t tJ r CRIMINAL JUSTICE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
- - MEETING MINUTES
Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Centennial Center Building, 3rd Floor, Conference Rooms A & B
915 10th Street, Greeley
Present: Judge James Hartmann, Commissioner William Garcia, Judge Michele
Meyer, Judge Thomas Quammen, Jerry Green, Karen Salaz, Kevin
Strobel, Sterling Geesaman, Ryan Broswell, Rick Dill, Mike Savage,
Dionne Sund, Mike McCormick, Jim Burack, Doug Erler, Dianna
Campbell
Chair, Judge Hartmann, called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m.
Introduction of attendees.
AGENDA
Meeting Minutes:
A. The January 2014 meeting minutes were accepted with no changes.
2. Subcommittee Reports:
A. Sheriff's Office Jail Reports - Sterling Geesaman reported on Weld County Jail
Admission Information, 2520 bookings (2.1% increase from 2013), 585 daily average
population, at 92% capacity and 65% weekly turnover rate, average length of stay is
21 days and 11 DOC back log inmates. Of the 2520 book-ins, 872 bench warrants,
801 new law violations, 478 traffic (including DUI's) and 369 civil (parole and
community corrections failures). This morning's count was 610 inmates. Dionne
Sund from ICCS inquired about the DOC backlog breakdown; how many were
community corrections clients? Judge Hartmann noted the volume of bond hearings
the last two weekends, typically 25-28%of the weekly volume but reached 40%.
Ryan Broswell, from the Work Release program, noted that his census is down
partially due to an increase in regressions. The typical reason for regressions is
drug/alcohol use, but he noted an increase in Protection Order Violations. EHM
utilization is, so far, similar to 2013.
Judge Hartmann asked Ryan to explain the Protection Order Violation regressions
further. Ryan explained that at entry into Work Release, the defendants submit to
drug testing, including breathalyzers. When drug testing indicates use, there may be a
Protection Order already in place for these defendants to abstain from drugs and
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alcohol. For those defendants using drugs/alcohol with a Protection Order in place,
regression is thus the result. Judge Hartmann went on to explain that at Bond
Hearings, when Protection Orders are being given, there is a box on the form that is
being checked for the defendant to abstain from drugs/alcohol. At sentencing,the
Protection Order is not being modified for the supervising entity to monitor
drug/alcohol use, such as Probation. Thus upon regression, the defendant is to serve
straight time, which in some instances is exceeding the maximum straight time
sentence. In addition, the toxicology laboratory that Work Release uses is in
California, which is an issue when it comes to court testimony. Judge Hartmann
indicted that the Judges will be more observant to modify Protection Orders in these
instances and to avoid these situations. Judge Quammen noted 33%positive baseline
rate, which has been historically normal. Dionne Sund inquired if drug/alcohol use
increases or decreases while in Work Release. Ryan and Sterling Geesaman clarified
that the baseline UA is utilized to track for new usage. In addition, the defendants are
drug tested at least every 30 days randomly and breathalyzers are completed upon
entry into the facility. Judge Meyer inquired about in-custody defendants that are
sentenced on Fridays. Ryan explained that they are typically brought over to Work
Release during the weekend. They are given basic guidelines and time to retrieve
personal items from their home and then receive a full program orientation on
Monday. These defendants are not kept in-custody through the weekend. It was
noted that EHM had an increase in "other offenses."
B. Pretrial Services Reports—Doug Erler, with Weld County Justice Services,
introduced Dianna Campbell as the new Pretrial Services Supervisor. Dianna
reported on the statistics for the Pretrial Services program for January and February
2014, as March was not available. She reported on average year-to-date statistics, 146
supervision intakes (by case), 966 active supervised cases, 137 bail assessments,
93.5%public safety rate and 88.7%court appearance rate.
Judge Hartmann asked about how Pretrial Services selects which new arrestee will be
interviewed at the jail. Doug explained that the priority is felonies, domestic
violence, DUI's and then the remaining defendants charged with misdemeanors. The
other challenge is the availability of the arrestees as well as their cooperativeness.
Judge Quammen stated that he is only seeing four(4) Bail Reports on average on
weekends. The clarification was that he is only seeing the felony Bail Reports, not the
misdemeanor Bail Reports that are being completed as well. Kevin Strobel of the
Public Defender's office respectfully inquired of Commissioner Garcia expanding the
resources of Pretrial Services. Doug stated that the Commissioners have been more
than gracious, the challenge is being staffed seven (7) days a week and the window of
time to complete defendant interviews is limited. The ability of Pretrial Services to
meet the demands of the Court and for Weld County as well as to help meet new
legislative requirements remains a challenge and is worth further discussion.
C. Mental Health/Criminal Justice Subcommittee Update- Mike McCormick from
North Range Behavioral Health (NRBH) filled in for Kendall Alexander as the
representative. He stated that$20 million of state mental health crisis funding is
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currently tied up in Court and cannot be used until the Court sorts out how the
contract should be awarded.
D. Criminal Justice Analysis - Rick Dill, Criminal Justice Consultant for Weld County,
is looking at systemic improvements with focus on mental health. He is currently
looking at ways to combine efforts of current committees to give greater focus and
reduce meetings. It came to pass; all the committees have distinct purposes. Rick's
goal is to map out each committee with a clear purpose, contact person, and identify
membership, activities, goals and objectives. He suggested a possible information
bulletin that lists services and resources. Rick went onto identify the current
committees in his distributed handout.
1. Direct Service Group, Interagency Case Management Committee. Objective:
Forum for agency practitioners to problem solve, coordinate a continuum of
services and educate one another about services available to improve
effectiveness and client success in the community.
2. Agency Coordination Group, Interagency Operational Improvement Committee.
Objective: Collaborative opportunity for service provider agencies to improve
knowledge about local services, resolve interagency operational issues, improve
communication and the effectiveness of client services.
3. Strategic Improvement Group, Community Mental Health/Criminal Justice
System Improvement Committee. Objective: Assess and evaluate local mental
health/criminal justice system performance and develop system improvement.
He stated the goal is to bring the information and progress from the committees back
to CJAC to educate. Doug went on to state that the committees are in different places
developmentally. It is the role of CJAC to review the work product of these
committees and create policy recommendations. Rick used an example of a systemic
issue: length of time between intake and medication appointment. By putting in the
mechanism to schedule the medication appointment at time of intake, this reduced the
length of delay with the addition of giving a limited bridge of medication. Rick stated
that there are several other issues that have been identified such as emergency
housing and transportation. Judge Hartmann requested to know which agencies and
people make up the committees and who the contact person is for each committee.
3. Roundtable:
A. Jim Burack, former Police Chief and Administrator for the Town of Milliken,
resigned his positions in the previous week and is currently a consultant for the town.
He stated that he has enjoyed his time on the CJAC as well as the Community
Corrections Board (CCB), as his role on the CJAC was the CCB representative. Jim
thanked everyone and noted that Weld County remains progressive as well as
innovative. It was noted that his replacement from the CCB would need to be
considered at their next meeting.
B. Judge Hartmann gave KUDOS to the group made up of Judge Quammen, Doug Erler,
Dionne Sund, Judges Kerns, Lyons, and Kopcow and Jerry Green for their
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extraordinary work around the new provision "DF4"or"the wobbler." The provision
states if DF4 classified offenders complete their sentence, and then the charge will be
reduced to a DM1. "DF4" are not to be sentenced to the DOC until all resources and
remedies have been exhausted. This group generated a protocol that not only will be
effective for Weld County, but other judicial districts will be utilizing the model as
well. The 19`h Judicial District was the first district to address the challenges of"the
wobbler." In addition, Jerry Green's team identified a loophole in the law that would
also allow drug dealers to reduce their offense. It is expected that future legislation
will correct this error, as identified.
C. Dionne Sund from ICCS announced that she implementation of the Progression
Matrix for Non-Residential supervision purposes is developing well. The Progression
Matrix is a statewide initiative involving community corrections programs, boards
and the DCJ to develop certain benchmarks for clients and in how they progress
through residential supervision in community corrections. The target will be 1 year in
length, which may be an issue for longer"white collar" crimes. When all the
programming has been completed and the client is on the minimal to administrative
supervision level, early termination may be requested via Probation and onto the
Court. She expects this to increase the number of early termination requests.
D. Mike McCormick with NRBH, asked if the"the wobbler" was to have an impact on
the Drug Court. There was discussion that Drug Court is currently a post conviction
court. As such, Drug Court maybe an option for judges to consider before sending
those persons to the DOC as a way to exhaust all options. Drug Court has 40 slots
available but has never exceeded 24 slots.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:05 p.m. The next CJAC meeting will
be Tuesday July 8, 2014 at 12:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, .7114/111 -
Dianna Campbell, Pretrial Supervisor Doug Erler, Director
Weld County Justice Services Weld County Justice Services
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