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MEMORANDUM <br />To: Mayor and City Council <br />From: City Manager <br />Subject: Santa Ana jail -Update From December 16, 2013 <br />Attachment A <br />Date: May 20, 2014 <br />This memo provides a Santa Ana Jail briefing update and restating strategies for making the jail <br />operations viable. The action requested in part by this memo update is to approve a higher per diem <br />rate with US Marshalls. The new per diem rate will result in additional revenue of $1,463,358. This <br />is the first rate increase in 8 years. In addition, the City will experience a cost savings of $214,000 as <br />it relates to the implementation of a new cost restructuring. <br />Background <br />The Santa Ana Jail opened in 1997 as part of the new "state of the art" Police Services Building at a <br />total cost of $109 million. The Santa Ana Jail was constructed in response to two County of Orange <br />issues impacting our City at the time. The first issue was the County's decision to assess booking fees <br />to local agencies at a rate of $158 per prisoner, therefore negatively impacting City finances. The <br />second issue was the County's inability to process, book, and hold misdemeanor arrests due to the <br />County jail overcrowding. In addition to the aforementioned county decisions impacting the City, the <br />construction of the jail was also in response to the City experiencing a higher volume of violent crimes <br />and property crimes. The good news is that since 1997, violent crimes and property crimes have <br />decreased by 41% and 34% respectively. <br />Santa Ana's Jail facility was constructed for two primary functions; the processing and booking of <br />individuals and the core function of housing prisoners. Currently the majority of jail inmates are <br />United States Marshall (USM) prisoners and United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) <br />detainees. During calendar year 2013, the inmates housed at the Santa Ana Jail have been comprised <br />of the USM at 58% and ICE at 41 %. Total cost to operate the jail facility in fiscal year 2013 -14 is $22.5 <br />million. Excluding the Santa Ana benefit associated with the processing and booking of prisoners as <br />well as excluding other reimbursable costs ($4 million combined), the net cost to operate the housing <br />component amounts to approximately $18.5 million. <br />It is important to emphasize that the Santa Ana Jail facility does provide a service benefit to the Santa <br />Ana community as well as police operations. The Jail facility, which is a 24 hour operation, utilizes the <br />equivalent of 22 jail personnel to process and book individuals arrested on felony charges prior to <br />transferring them to the Orange County Jail. In addition, the jail facility contains a holding facility <br />component that allows Santa Ana police officers to detain misdemeanor arrests that are not normally <br />accepted by the County. The use of Santa Ana jail personnel provides greater effectiveness and <br />efficiency by returning officers to patrol in a quicker time frame. The resulting effect is hundreds of <br />additional hours per year back in the field. 25B -3 <br />