By Bob Cushman
I want to let my fellow citizens know that our local justice system is in trouble.
That is why I have prepared the report: Crime and Justice Processing Rates: San Mateo County and Statewide.
The report presents data about crime and the processing of adults through the San Mateo County justice system, from arrest to final disposition. It provides an overview of our county justice system and identifies areas that officials should focus on to better manage the ever-increasing demand for county revenues to support it.
In his May, 2012 Budget Message, our County Manager, John Maltbie, told us that criminal justice, as a percentage of net county cost, has increased from 36 percent in Fiscal Year 2007-08 to 52 percent in Fiscal Year 2011-12.
This ever-growing burden is a consequence of systemic challenges that impede the ability of our justice officials to collectively manage the workload. The San Mateo County justice system is in overdrive, but there is little understanding about what is increasing the system-wide workload and what can be done to manage it better without resorting to more of the same; i.e., a bigger jail.
My report describes substantial systemic, system-wide challenges in San Mateo County, such as:
- The data does not support the notion that jail crowding or increases in the workload of the justice system are the result of an increase in crime or an increase in adult arrests. Crime and adult arrests are declining, not increasing. County demographics favor stable to declining crime rates in the future.
- Our low crime and adult arrest rates mean that the San Mateo County response (budget, staffing, jail bed space, workload, etc.) should be much, much less than statewide, perhaps in the neighborhood of 50 percent of the statewide average rates per 100,000 population. The San Mateo County “response to crime” rates are much higher than expected.
- The approximate 20-percent increase in felony filings between 2005-2010 has taken place despite a decrease in crime and decrease in adult felony arrests.
- More than one in every 10 adult arrestees is eventually released by law enforcement, without the arresting agency seeking prosecution.
- A quarter of felony case dispositions are dismissed or acquitted. Though not convicted, many spend considerable time in jail pre-trial, some in maximum or medium security.
- A large percentage of the jail bed space is being used to house pre-trial prisoners, not to punish people who have been sentenced. Only a small portion of the jail bed space is being used to incapacitate the truly dangerous.
- The overuse of pre-trial detention compared to other counties may be a sign that pre-trial detention is being used to extract guilty pleas from people who are in jail simply because they cannot afford bail.
- Our justice system is dependent upon guilty pleas to keep up with the workload. Over 98 percent of felony cases are settled before trial. There are fewer trials, either by court or jury, than statewide.
- About one-third of our very large, active probation caseload is revoked each year. They re-enter the jail and the justice system, not as fresh arrests, but as probation violators. In this sense, the system may be feeding upon itself.
Over all, there is much that can be done to slim down and improve the administration of justice in San Mateo County, reduce current and future expenditures and still improve public safety.
This is NOT the time to sit back, lulled by the “leave the driving to us” refrain of some of our leaders. It is a time to ask discerning questions. It is the time to become informed, and for each of us to form our own opinion about the direction our justice system is taking, including the construction and staffing of a very large, expensive new jail, and the extent to which the new, proposed sales tax revenue would be used to finance expanded justice system operations.
See the full report as a downloadable PDF document in the photos section of this article.
* Who is Bob Cushman?
Bob Cushman is a retired criminal justice system consultant with over 40 years of experience assisting local law enforcement, courts and corrections agencies improve the administration of justice. He lives in Foster City, in San Mateo County, California. His most recent work has been as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice as a technical assistance provider to county-level justice systems seeking assistance with jail crowding or initiating a system-wide criminal justice coordinating committee. He brings research and social science tools to help local jurisdictions better understand their criminal justice operations and find ways to improve them. He is published. He has a national reputation as a speaker, trainer, researcher, program evaluator, and demonstration project director.
* When asked what inspired him to do the research and voluntarily put together this report, Bob answered:
"I thought collecting some of the facts together might help engage citizens and alert them that our justice system needs attention. I could see our county - my county - going off in an ineffective and expensive direction.
From time to time I have volunteered my time to meet with various San Mateo County officials to discuss our justice system and, being in the business, I tend to keep an eye on developments in the local justice system here.
I find some of our key officials resistive to change and unwilling to address some basic problems with our local justice system. This has been pretty frustrating. I have gone public with my concerns only because this is my county. It is where I live. In my work, I have recommended system changes including additional jail beds, where warranted. But, I have also recommended against them, too."
Service League of San Mateo County http://serviceleague.org/Board_of_Directors.html Notice how many Supervisors are members, now go to their County website to see if they mention that they are members......They don't
Perhaps you should consider run for county supervisor, platform from which your voice can be more broadly heard.
Service League programs provide: Humanitarian Educational Substance Abuse Recovery Spiritual Personal Growth Services For 50 years, we have delivered compassion and created hope for thousands of county jail inmates and their families . . . and thanks to your generous support, we will continue to provide services to these ones so much in need of a helping hand and patient ear. OUR VISION: Every inmate and former inmate in San Mateo County will have access to the programs, services and support networks they need to successfully re-enter the community as contributing citizens and responsible family members . Everyday our volunteers and staff live up to a promise we made 50 years ago...
It would be interesting if The Patch could get the other side to answer your arguments. Liberal loon or not, one thing that I ABSOLUTELY agree with you about is that people waiting to stand trial should not be in jail an inordinate amount of time. The right to a speedy trial seems to have been lost. Maybe, in addition to or instead of a new jail, we need more courts and judges...or maybe the rules of the courtroom need to be tightened up so there is less time wasted and more time spent serving the public. Either way, this is certainly food for thought. Thank you for putting it out there for discussion.
Charged with 17 felony counts of child molestation, Bail was $1,000,000 he could not afford nor did he want to put up and lose $100,000. At time of trial he was offered a substantial reduction of charges for a guilt plea, he declined went to trial was found NOT GUILY on ALL COUNTS. Our District Attorney missed 100% of the counts.
It is true, though, that the 2012 Civil Grand Jury has urged the Sheriff to begin using electronic monitoring to grant pretrial release to highly screened, carefully selected pretrial prisoners. Source: http://www.sanmateocourt.org/documents/grand_jury/2011/retirement_costs.pdf Other groups have made this same recommendation. This would also reduce jail crowding. The Sheriff simply will not use it, for any pretrial prisoner. It is also true that many felony defendants have their cases dismissed. My report shows that a quarter of our felony defendants have their cases dismissed or are acquitted. I do not think the public understands the extent of this problem. Yet many of these men and women are forced to serve extensive time in pretrial jail, even though their case never results in a conviction. (See page, 21, Table 7A of my report). There are many, many more appropriate examples that could be used to argue for the need for reform than the one you have cited here.
That's why the jury came back 0 for 17 counts, prosecutorial misconduct