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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRISON BOARD MINUTES September 2021 FRANKLIN COUNTY PRISON BOARD MINUTES Franklin County Administrative Building September 14, 2021 Present: John Flannery, Commissioner Bob Ziobrowski, Commissioner Bill Bechtold, FCJ Warden David Keller, Commissioner Hon. Shawn Meyers, President Judge Etta Rotz, Chief Deputy Controller Benjamin Sites, Deputy Sheriff Doug Wilburne, Probation Chief Geoffrey Willet, Probation Deputy Chief Ellen Eckert, Pre-Release Supervisor Lionel Pierre, FCJ Deputy Warden Jeffrey Scott, FCJ Deputy Warden Michelle Weller, FCJ Deputy Warden Mark Singer, Court Administrator I. The meeting was called to order by Commissioner Flannery at 8:30 AM. II. Public Comment A. There was no public comment III. Minutes for the August 2021 meeting were discussed. A. Commissioner Ziobrowski moved to accept the minutes, Judge Meyers seconded the motion and the minutes were unanimously approved. IV. Warden’s Report A. There were 171 commitments and 136 discharges in August. B. The average daily population was 374 with an average of 308 males and 65 females. C. The recidivism rate was 47% when looking at all new commitments that had been incarcerated at FCJ within the past three years. The recidivism rate was 39% when looking only at those commitments with new charges. D. At a snapshot view at the beginning of September there were 148 sentenced and 251 unsentenced inmates. There were 20 inmates on Approved Temporary Absence status; however none of these are due to overcrowding. Forty-eight were pending transfer to other facilities. E. There was $12, 915 collected in total revenue for August. F. The average length of stay (ALOS) for those discharged in August was 75.8 days. G. There was one inmate housed in Centre and one in Armstrong. H. A breakdown of the demographic statistics for August indicated that males made up 76% of the population, 68% of the population were white, 51% of the population was between the ages of 26-39, 74% were single, 2% were military veterans and 76% had at least their high school diploma or GED. I. The jail’s July expenditures were discussed. J. PrimeCare’s medical report was presented. There were 1006 sick calls. There were 29 outside medical appointments and 7 trips to the ER. There were 820 mental health contacts. There were 105 inmates on suicide watch. There were no inmates that required 1:1 observation. There were no inmates at Torrance State Hospital. There were six participants in the Sex Offender’s Treatment Program. There were 39 in the Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT) program. There were 251 on the MH caseload and an additional 43 with SMI diagnoses. There were 71 commitments placed on detox protocol. There were two pregnant inmates. Five inmates and no staff were given the COVID vaccine. Commissioner Ziobrowski asked if the vaccination was mandatory for staff and Warden Bechtold answered that it was not. K. Commissioner Keller moved to accept the Warden’s report, Commissioner Ziobrowski seconded the motion and the report was unanimously approved. V. Intermediate Punishment report A. The Pre-Release department received 45 intakes and had 42 releases. B. No inmates were placed in jobs, as the work release program continues to be shut down. C. There were 1774 hours of community service completed. D. The Pre-Trial Release program had 79 offenders. E. The Drug and Alcohol RIP/DCIP program had 59 offenders. There were seven successful discharges. F. The Sexual Offender Program had 52. G. There were 31 offenders on the Mental Health caseload. H. The Electronic Monitoring Program had 13 offenders. I. There were 173 jail days saved by using the alternative sanctions of electronic monitoring (559 jail days), DCIP/D&A RIP (2437 jail days), intensive supervision (62 jail days) and pre-trial release (2319 jail days). J. There were 21 offenders detained in August and 17 given alternative sanctions. K. The Probation Department collected $243, 817 in August. VI. Old Business A. Warden Bechtold provided a pandemic update. There are currently three positive cases for inmates and three positive cases for staff. The jail plans to return to community service and county maintenance work details by September 27, 2021 and to restart the work release program on October 11, 2021. B. The jail’s switch to an updated Offender Management System took place on Aug. 16th. VII. New Business A. Warden Bechtold discussed correctional trends. He recently attended a state conference made up of county and state correctional agencies. He said that COVID remains the number one issue being faced by everyone. Other trends and concerns being seen in correctional agencies are: (1) recruitment and retention of staff, (2) proposed lawsuits that limit the use of restraint chairs, OC spray and restrictive housing , (3) increased training on how to manage transgender inmates, (4) changes to Title 37 regulations and (5) Law 57, which requires that all new hires are registered into a system that checks separation records from previous law enforcement employers. B. Staff hiring and retention was discussed in more detail. Some counties have implemented higher salaries, recruiting bonuses, retention bonuses and hazard pay. FCJ is seeing a trend in veteran staff being less likely to invest in the training of new staff because they feel the new staff will not stay. Warden Bechtold said that he hopes to start a Field Training Officer program to help in this area. Warden Bechtold said that another idea was giving bonuses to officers that recruit new hires and an additional bonus if that new hire stays on for a certain amount of time. Commissioner Flanner y asked if pay rates are discussed during union negotiations and Warden Bechtold answered that they were. The next contract negotiation will take place in 2023, so he said that pay might need addressed before that time. VIII. The next meeting is scheduled for October 12, 2021 at 8:30AM at the Franklin County Administrative Building. Commissioner Ziobrowski moved to end the meeting, Judge Meyers seconded the motion and the meeting was adjourned.