Meeting Information
Retreat for Criminal Justice Coordinating Council; 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.; Training Room in the Douglas County Public Works Facility located at 3755 E 25th Street, Lawrence, Kansas.
August 27, 2016
Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) Retreat
County Commissioner Mike Gaughan, chair, called the special meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. on Saturday, August 27, 2016.
ATTENDANCE
Those in attendance included: Mike Gaughan; Bob Tryanski, Charles Branson, Michelle Roberts, Craig Weinaug, Edith Guffey, Leslie Soden, Lori Alvarado, Ken McGovern, Shaye Downing, Scott Miller, Susan Hadl, Tarik Khatib, Pam Weigand, Robert Bieniecki, Tom Markus, Lisa Larsen, and Peggy Kittel. Also attending from the KU School of Social Welfare assisting the meeting Margaret Severson and Jason Matejkowski.
INTRODUCTIONS
Mike Gaughan introduced Judge Peggy Kittel who joined the meeting to fill in for Judge Fairchild who will be retiring.
GOAL OF RETREAT
The goal of the retreat is to develop action plans for the next year and continue to build deep relationships, collaboration and trust among the members.
EXERCISE
Margaret Severson, KU School of Social Science, lead the group in a “speed acquainting” exercise to start of the retreat.
PRESENTATIONS
KOMA
Charles Branson, District Attorney, made a presentation on the Kansas Open Meetings Act (KOMA) explaining to the group what kind of member contact would violate the KOMA laws.
Coverage includes:
• Email discussion among board members. Acknowledging a meeting date does not violate KOMA. Discussion of board business does.
• Subgroup and working group meetings are subject to KOMA.
• Minutes are not required except for executive session.
• Agendas are not required, but if one is established it must show topics of
the meeting.
• You could have an open meeting on the internet but everyone including public must be accessible.
• Notice of meetings must be provided if someone inquires.
• A violation fine can be charged to the person making the violation.
• Robert Bieniecki, CJCC Coordinator, is the contact for anyone wanting to place an item on the CJCC agenda.
YOUTH SERVICES
Pam Weigand, Director of Youth Services, made a presentation on minority and ethnic interface in the youth services program. Weigand discussed assessment scoring which places juveniles in the Youth Services facility or on diversion; provided an overall look at the average daily stay of youth in the juvenile justice program; and viewed detention populations by gender and race.
Weigand said the overall average days of detention are decreasing. Total admissions for Douglas County were compared to Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee and Wyandotte counties from 2011-2014. Douglas County admissions ranged from 97-to-194 as compared to the other counties which ranged from 495-1181 admissions per year. Some notable details included:
• The average youth populations by race in Douglas County are 79.8% white; 7.9% black; 8.6% Hispanic; 3% American Indian; and 3.7% Asian;
• The average juvenile admissions by race in Kansas are: 2011 42.1% white, 57.9% youth of color (YOC); 2012 44.6% white/55.4% YOC; 2013 42% white/58% YOC; and 2014 41% white/58% YOC.
• The average juvenile admissions by race in Douglas County are: 2011 50.5% white/ 49.5% youth of color (YOC); 2012 56.3% white/43.7% YOC; 2013 5.7% white/44.3% YOC; and 201 73.1% white/26.9% YOC.;
• The average daily population by site at facility in Douglas County ranged from 5.4-9 from 2011-2014; Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee and Wyandotte ranged from 29.9 to 62 persons per day;
• Douglas County admissions data show males had a higher population rate in 2013 and 2015, female population dominated in 2014.
It was noted by several members of the council that the overall youth system is in a huge transition with the State of Kansas, given Juvenile Justice Reform. Staff is unsure how this will affect our programs at the county level within the next year.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Tarik Khatib, City of Lawrence Chief of Police; and Ken McGovern, Douglas County Sheriff, discussed minority and ethnic interface regarding law enforcement practices and challenges.
Khatib stated that officers are taking on more and more responsibilities. We need to look at the big picture. Is the increase in crime a result of socioeconomics conditions contributing to disproportionate minority interface with the criminal justice system? People arrested for the same crime that have a job, education, support system and resources generally are able to post bond. People without resources tend stay in jail longer. This is not necessarily a bias.
Two things that Khatib said that have been brought up by the community to review locally in the police department are 1) car stops and 2) body cameras. Khatib said he is not opposed to a review of car stops but we first must have the resources such as the right computer systems and social science methods to identify and keep tract of the necessary data. Body cameras also require resources. If you collect 50,000 hours of video, that video must be collected, processed, reviewed, screened and categorized. Prosecutors will also have to review the video as potential evidence. You will have to add police officers or slow the process down.
Khatib added law enforcement is a highly complex job. Officers go from issuing tickets to an active shooter situation, to a domestic dispute. These complexities can lead to stress and poor decision making. When coming up with a one-year plan, Khatib wants to keep it realistic and provide the resources necessary to accomplish that goal.
Ken McGovern stated under Kansas law, officers are mandated 40 hours of training every year which includes fire arms and biased-based policing. Not all states have that. The Sheriff’s office is unique as they have only 30 officers assigned to patrol, with 4-5 covering county line to county line. Some are assigned to the correctional facility. McGovern said there is a perception that when you go to jail you get one phone call. That is not true. According to McGovern, staff members do whatever they can do to assist people in contacting family members or bondsman to help them get released. McGovern said there are things we can do. We need to keep researching what fits us the best, what works with the courts and what works for release. But, if the project is not working we need to scratch it and start something different. He doesn’t want to throw money at projects that don’t accomplish their intended goals.
Khatib added for this council to work we need to be honest. There was discussion on whether law enforcement may be biased and defensive. McGovern said a committee was formed for bias based policing using a national expert from Florida. It was determined that everyone has some bias. What we need to determine, if we collect data, is what we are going to use it for and what will it achieve. In an organization of 150 people, there may be some bias. If we are going to collect data, we engage a criminologist, engage officers and do it correctly so we get good, useful information. Khatib said the defensiveness he sees is because we are asking officers to do more and more, to be more sophisticated while not providing the tools to do so.
BREAK INTO GROUPS
The CJCC attendees broke into three groups to identify concrete and feasible objectives they would like to see met during the following year in the area of disproportionate minority contact with the Douglas County Criminal Justice system.
Group 1 Objectives: Collect data and look for Disproportionate Minority Contract (DMC) findings, then report to the CJCC and County Commission, making recommendations or take action to reduce DMC in Douglas County; look at things that can be done easily and immediately with a positive impact; and utilize jail resources that require payment of money, identify resources so people don’t have to stay in jail while people are waiting for court.
Group 2 Objectives: Collect baseline data; look into hiring a person to design a data collection system that will collect information on not just car stops but who gets charged and the verdict; designate a body to hear complaints like a community review board where people can voice concerns. Consider forming a subgroup for questioning.
Group 3 Objectives: This group feels there should be short-term goals and long-term goals. In the short term, the group feels they should be people oriented and hear what the community has to say about their perception of the problems in our community, and investigate what other communities have done in the short term.
For the long term, they feel gathering data and doing a literature review is important. There is research on these issues that has been developed since 1960s. They want to make sure no one faces different treatment. The group may need to do research on socioeconomics.
At 12:45 p.m. the group broke for lunch.
After reconvening, the group continued discussion started from breakout groups.
It was the consensus that the group needs a plan for data collection. They don’t want to collect data, just for the sake of collecting data. It was proposed the group look at what other communities are doing. It was also determined the issues presented are not all law enforcement issues. The courts, prosecution and defense should all be involved when building our goals.
Important items for the council to keep in mind are 1) the idea of being race and ethnicity focused in their mission and 2) concerns about disproportionate racial impact to keep from being a Ferguson or Baton Rouge.
Gaughan again confirmed the purpose of the retreat is to develop a work plan for the next year. There are fundamental things that have to happen. The group will determine specific goals, a work plan and who will be responsible.
PRESENTATION
Jason Matejkowski, KU School of Social Science, provided an overview on baseline data and the context on where Lawrence/Douglas County fit into the national discussion over incarceration and criminal justice and jail alternatives.
Discussion included: 1) Determining if people are being treated fairly in our criminal justice program because evidence shows there is a disproportionate number of minorities in the jail; and 2) There was a suggestion of determining a Practices Analysis to know where to start in collection of data. One suggestion was from the point of first contact because when a person is pulled over the officer has the ability to enter someone into the criminal justice system or write a ticket.
Another area to look at is bonding. Some people opt to stay in jail locally and get credit for their time. Some can’t afford to bond or are unable to borrow the 10-15% needed to bond. Some people have no ties to the community.
Diversion is a goal to work on. The council discussed developing a pilot proposal but determined they would need resources for a bond supervisor.
ACTION
It was the consensus of the council to initiate a subcommittee to work on alternatives for those having to stay in jail. Robert Bieniecki, Coordinator was directed to create a committee to work on these matters, including the development of a more robust bond supervision program. It was suggested that Scott Miller, Mike Brouwer and Michelle Roberts be involved.
Based upon the objectives determined from the small group discussions, the council agreed to setup three task force subcommittees to study the following:
- Study of relationship of length of stay in jail by race and ethnicity: Shaye Downing, Charles Branson and Ken McGovern
- Look at law enforcement interface by race and ethnicity: Susan Hadl, Leslie Soden and Tarik Khatib
- Diversion: Michelle Robert, Mike Brouwer, and Scott Miller. Robert Bieniecki to create a committee.
EXTERNAL CONSULANT
There was discussion regarding whether there is a need for hiring a consultant. The group currently has Margaret Severson and Jason Matejkowski working with the council. At this point the council doesn’t know what they would need consultation on. There were concerns that an outside consultant from Washington would not be familiar with our area and issues and therefore take months to get up to speed. Exploring McArthur Association and data from benchmark cities was considered as a likely possibility.
PRESENSENTATION
Robert Bieniecki, CJCC Coordinator, discussed future meetings. The council has been meeting regularly every three weeks. It was determined that the subcommittees would meet regularly and the CJCC would meet every two months until the end of the year. Those dates are be determined. Bieniecki plans to send out a survey for feedback.
NEXT MEETING
• Next Meeting: Tuesday, October 18, 11:00 a.m. County Commission Chamber.
At 4:15 p.m. Gaughan adjourned the retreat.
Time and Date