1. Receive presentation from County Probation Department on the Swift, Certain and Fair Supervision Project Grant award to implement Flash Incarceration;


2. Approve appropriation of grant funds of $200,000 per year for three fiscal years to the Probation Department's Budget, starting in Fiscal Year 2018-19;


3. Adopt a budget resolution (Attachment A) to increase the Probation Department's FY 2018-19 budget in order to incorporate the receipts and expenditures associated with these grant funds; and


4. Authorize the Chief Probation Officer, or his/her designee, to implement the budget and any necessary amendments for this grant, in accordance with the funding agreement.

Background

The Swift, Certain and Fair ("SCF") grant program is offered by the federal Department of Justice for the purpose of reducing recidivism using evidence-based best management practices and, therefore, reducing the number of local probation cases returned to state prison commitment. The SCF program was established by the "Swift and Certain Sanctions Act" of 2010.  The American Legislative Exchange Council summarizes the program purpose as follows: 

"...to deliver swift, certain and proportionate responses to violations of probation and parole, they need an array of institutional and community-based sanctions as well as the authority to assign—and reassign—offenders to those sanctions. This Act requires community corrections agencies to adopt a set of graduated sanctions and rewards to respond to violations and compliance with the conditions of supervision. This Act also establishes authority for agencies to impose graduated sanctions and rewards through an administrative process."

The application for SCF funding was developed in collaboration with the County's Criminal Justice Grant Steering Committee which is comprised of representatives from the following County departments: 

• Health and Human Services Agency 
• Public Defender's Office 
• District Attorney's Office 
• Probation Department 
• Sheriff's Office
• County Administrator's Office

County Grant Oversight Committee
The Probation Department submitted its application for federal SCF funding in April 2018 and was notified on September 2, 2018 that the County was awarded the grant. This grant application was developed and submitted prior to the creation of the County's policy requiring all grants be reviewed by the newly created Grants Oversight Committee.  The grant oversight policy became effective on July 1, 2018.

Project Purpose

The award provides a total of $600,000 over three years ($200,000 per year, beginning on October 1, 2018 and ending on September 30, 2021 in accordance with the federal fiscal year). As stated above, the program purpose is to reduce recidivism using evidence based practices and to reduce the number of cases returned to state prison by the community supervision agency.  The Probation Department will use these funds to implement "flash incarceration" in accordance with Senate Bill 266 (Sen. Block, 2016).  
 

What is "flash incarceration"?
Flash incarceration is a period of imposed detention in County jail due to a violation of an offender’s conditions of probation or mandatory supervision, with the court only becoming involved if the offender appeals the flash incarceration. The length of the detention period may range between one and ten consecutive days.  

Per SB 266, the Probation Department has already developed a "response matrix" which establishes protocols for imposing pre-determined graduated sanctions for all felony offenders supervised by the Department.  For example, if a felony offender is found to have committed a violation of his/her terms of probation the response matrix clearly defines and delineates the appropriate sanction to be implemented by Probation Department staff.  

Though Yolo County has a response matrix in place, expanding the use of flash incarceration to the entire supervised population is a significant change. The Probation Department will begin the implementing flash incarceration with a grant-funded officer supervising 50 probationers during the first fiscal year.

This program will model best practices from the Hawaii Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) project. Established in 2004 by Judge Steven S. Alm of the First Circuit Court, the HOPE program was designed to identify probationers at high risk of violating the conditions of their community supervision and deter them from using drugs and committing crimes with frequent and random drug tests backed up by swift, certain and short jail stays. Ongoing research and analysis, most recently by the PEW "Public Safety Performance Project",  shows that HOPE probationers were significantly less likely to be arrested for a new crime, to use drugs and to have their probation revoked. 

The County's proposed program will utilize both incentives and sanctions with a direct nexus to behavior. Delivery of both incentives and sanctions will be tied to the probationer’s actions and behavior, with Probation officers responding within 72 hours. The use of clear rewards and consequences will lead to a reduction in the overall use of violations of probation longer than 30 days and will improve probationer success rates while reducing the impact on the Yolo County Jail and state prison system.

Implementation Funding

This grant will provide technical assistance in refining the current response matrix to assure it is evidence-based and aligned with best management practices. This grant will also assist in integrating flash incarceration standards into the Department's response matrix. To ensure timely implementation, the grant will fund one (1) part time Supervising Probation Officer, one (1) part time Legal Secretary II, and one (1) full time Deputy Probation Officer II, for a total of 1.43 full time employees. The annual program budget categories are shown in the table below, with a more detailed budget provided in Attachment C to this staff report.