Santa Barbara Countys criminal justice reform making progress, focused on nine initiatives – Santa Maria Times

The report was delivered by retired Judge Sherrill Ellsworth, the former presiding judge of Riverside County, of Adjudicate Services LLC, who was hired to work with the countys criminal justice partners to develop initiatives to improve the system.

Ellsworth said 14 initiatives were initially developed, but those were whittled down to the nine she said could be done most easily and have the greatest impact on reforming the system.

The initiatives are variously aimed at reducing recidivism, diverting offenders from jail, including getting help for those with mental health problems, as well as reducing jail time and improving the overall speed and efficiency of the system.

Initiatives, listed in priority, are improving access to incarcerated clients, improving the discovery sharing process, developing multidisciplinary teams, a shared alternative sentencing pilot program, pretrial supervised release, creating a data dashboard, practicing holistic defense, providing felony diversion programs and resolving aged cases.

Ellsworth said improving access to incarcerated clients is at the forefront of our minds as the most important of the nine initiatives.

This access is key to being able to work on the overall criminal justice improvements," she said. Without it, we dont have the ability to resolve things early, we dont have the ability to resource people out to what would be better programs for them.

She said the discovery initiative is also highly important and she feels a sea change in the cooperation of the District Attorneys and Public Defenders Office.

At times, we were arm wrestling, she said. Im going to be really honest with you, it wasnt easy.

Through the multidisciplinary team, everyone entering the jail will be evaluated by representatives of the full range of departments involved, Ellsworth said.

She noted the team would be important in peeling back the onion in finding the reasons behind what happened over the weekend in Santa Barbara, when an offender who had been released from jail with an ankle monitor allegedly killed a woman.

She noted the shared alternative sentencing pilot, which she said is the first of its kind in California, will assure that the right individuals are in the right positions.

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Ellsworth called the pretrial supervised release program an unqualified success, growing steadily until 574 clients were enrolled as of March 1.

The data dashboard has been developed, and although its constantly being improved, it is already up on both the Sheriffs Office and Probation Department websites, with other departments to be added in the future.

I would have to say the holistic defense has been a huge success, Ellsworth said, noting that having 94% of offenders appear at their next court date, as well as other percentages she cited, is pretty amazing.

Those percentages included that 75% of clients were connected with mental health services, 73% were connected with substance use treatment, 73% who started out in custody were released with community support services, 57% were connected with housing services and 19% were connected with employment services.

The diversion initiative is focused on two programs community restorative justice and felony diversion. Ellsworth said that in looking at cases that have lingered for more than 365 days, a total of 121 cases have been prioritized for resolution.

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino wanted to peel back the onion right then on the apparent homicide because he needed the details so he could explain how it did or did not relate to the criminal justice improvement effort.

But County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato said its too early to do that, as the investigation is still underway and all the facts are not yet known.

What happened in Santa Barbara is just another day in the North County, 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson said. To boil it down, all these numbers were looking at are great numbers. At the end of the day, these numbers mean nothing if our recidivism rate doesnt go down.

Nelson added that law enforcement partners are overwhelmed, but the county needs a diversion program that protects the public and the victims.

Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors allocated $4.5 million in the current fiscal year to make improvements to the criminal justice system, which accounts for 23% of the countys operating budget.

County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato said some of that money is for one-time costs and some of it was allocated to ongoing programs.

Partners in the countys criminal justice system are the Sheriffs Office, the District Attorneys Office, the Public Defenders Office and the Probation Department, but other county departments and offices, like the County Executive Office, Behavioral Health Department, Public Health Department and others, are also involved in the process of resolving criminal cases.

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Santa Barbara Countys criminal justice reform making progress, focused on nine initiatives - Santa Maria Times