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Lopez, Kenia From: Tim Johnson < Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2019 6:58 AM To: eComment Cc: Pulido, Miguel; Sarmiento, Vicente; Penaloza, David; Iglesias, Cecilia; Solorio, Jose; Villegas, Juan; Ridge, Kristine Subject: 8513- County Jail/State Probation Research Mayor, Council, and CM Ridge ... I wholly support directing staff to gather information as to the county's release procedures from the county jail located in our community as to be discussed on tonight's council agenda item 85B. It is my belief that the county's current processes and procedures disproportionately impact the city of Santa Ana by releasing county inmates directly onto our streets without a reasonable attempt to transport them back to their last city of residence or the city of their arrest. Additionally, the location of their belongings for pickup exacerbates this issue and likely increases the likelihood that they will remain in Santa Ana instead of going back to their city of origin where they are more likely to have social, business, and family ties allowing them to more successfully reenter their productive daily routines. I would suggest that staff needs to determine, at a minimum, the following so that a further plan of action can be developed: • What times are inmates released when they have fulfilled their sentence, post bail, or other release circumstances? • Are they offered transportation back to their last city of residence, where they were picked up, where they have family ties, and/or where their (alleged) infraction occurred? If so, is this transportation being provided directly from jail prior to them being released to the streets. • Where their belonging are stored and what are the pick up processes? This is especially important for larger items that someone who may be experiencing homelessness may have with them. • Is the county providing them with an opportunity to charge their cell phones prior to release? • Is the county providing them the opportunity to voluntarily stay in safe custody pending a pick up from a relative or friend? • Is the county providing the option for transportation to a drug/alcohol treatment facility prior to being released onto the streets? • Legally, is it allowed to be require the county to transport back to last known city of residence, where the infraction occurred, or where they were picked up? It is my belief that once the above is known, it will be determined that the county is not doing what it should be doing to help increase the safety of our city as well provide the formerly jailed person the most opportunity for a successful re- entry into daily living. As such, I believe that council should ask that staff also come to the table with a range of options that it believes the county can do a better job of achieving a goal of increasing the quality of life in our city as well as increase the opportunity for success for the released individual. SB42 is on the governor's desk which is a step in the right direction but does not nearly go far enough in addressing this issue nor is it specific to the issues that I believe our city is seeing due to the county's current processes and procedures. In addition, the city should have a better understanding of how the state parolee releases are impacting our community by knowing the locations of state funded housing (i.e. hotel/motels such as Red Roof Inn on Main by The Discovery Cube), how long they are allowed to stay, renewal durations (i.e. how many 30-day stays are allowed for example, if applicable), how the state is transporting them back to their own communities where they have an established social network. O