Hoping to further its goal of overhauling the county’s justice system and ultimately closing the Men’s Central Jail, the county Board of Supervisors moved forward on Tuesday, March 1, with the creation of a department to centralize various programs enacted over the past few years to develop incarceration alternatives while expanding community services to divert people out of the jail system.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl told her colleagues she was proud of the work done over the past eight years to support programs searching for alternatives to incarceration. The requested plan will include a blueprint for the activities of various programs that will be under the new agency’s umbrella, including the Alternatives to Incarceration Initiative, the Jail Closure Implementation Team and the Office of Adult Programs, which will “centralize all prevention, pretrial and reentry services for adults” and include a unit to service “transition-age youth.”
The board also requested a separate report on the planned July introduction of the Department of Youth Development, and how it will work in conjunction with the new JCOP agency. It also asked for a report on the development of a Justice Advisory Board.