Meeting Information
June 27th, 2017
11:00am – 12:30pm
1. Review and approve CJCC meeting minutes from May 9th , 2017
2. Statistics update – Emily Kennedy
3. SAMSHA Best Practices Implementation Academy Presentation – Mike Gaughan, Robert Bieniecki, Mike Brouwer and Naomi Cataudella
4. CJCC Subgroup updates –Chuck Epp, Emily Kennedy, Robert Bieniecki
5. CJCC Programs and Budget update – Robert Bieniecki
6. Elections and new appointments– Mike Gaughan
7. New business/discussion
*Next meeting September 19th, 2017 at 11:00 am
June 27, 2017
Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Meeting (CJCC)
County Commissioner Mike Gaughan, chair, called the regular meeting to order at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 27, 2017.
ATTENDANCE
Peggy Kittel; David Johnson, Patrick Schmidt.(Bert Nash), Scott Miller, Edith Guffey, Pam Weigand, Charles Branson, Robert Bieniecki, Mike Gaughan, Chuck Epp. Lori Alvarado; Craig Weinaug, and Leslie Soden (arrived later). Also attending from the KU School of Social Welfare assisting the meeting Margaret Severson and Jason Matejkowski.
APPOINTMENT INFORMATION
Members, Bob Tryanski and Susan Hadl, have other positions. Bob has taken the position as Behavioral Health Coordinator; and Susan is a member of the Co-Responder Team with the City of Lawrence. Their CJCC positions were appointed by Commissioners Thellman and Derusseau and will need to be filled in the future.
MINUTES
Gaughan moved to approve the minutes from 05/09/17. Motion was seconded by Pam Weigand and it carried.
SAMSHA Best Practices Implementation Academy Presentation:
Mike Brouwer and Naomi Cataudella (Bert Nash) made a presentation. They discussed community agencies (listed below) working to support mental health initiatives in the jail.
• University of Kansas School of Social Welfare
• Interns from KU working 25 hours per week
• Formed CIT Council (training officers)
• Pretrial Release Program and Risk Assessment
• Pursued Justice Mental Health Collaboration Grant
• Stepping Up Initiative emphasizing timely screening and assessment.
• Collaborating with District Attorney office
• Sharing information on screen with court in verbal communication
• One Request of Information that covers all agencies
Brouwer discussed the 30 minutes Best Practices presentation in Washington aimed at reducing the number of mentally ill in jail. Douglas County was the most requested practice site from other counties.
Gaughan stated that he learned all communities are facing issues and challenges. Some are dealing with difference substances, which will eventually hit this part of the country. We need to be listening to what these communities are doing to deal with it. Gaughan felt his attending the conference was a valuable experience.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW BERT NASH CEO
David Johnson introduced Patrick Schmidt, new CEO of Bert Nash.
CJCC SUBGROUP UPDATES:
Chuck Epp: Assessing Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. Epp stated there is a need for adequate data to assess where racial disparities are occurring and whether they are being compounded across the process. They have determined some of the actors/institutions have data that is useful, but they don’t have adequate data to answer the questions we have. Since January the group has been focusing on how they can improve data gathering. This group doesn’t have the capacity to do that so they looked at nationally recognized consultants. At this time, the group is prepared to recommend a consultant, Jack McDevitt, Director of Northeastern’s Institute on Race and Justice. The next steps are up to the officials.
Emily Kennedy: Assessing Racial Disparities in the Douglas County Jail: This group looked at whether whites and blacks are getting deferential amounts of releases. The group gathered one year’s worth of data. They looked at 5000 bookings into the jail each year and looked at four samples each month totally about 770 total releases. This information was given to the consultants and included race, ethnicity, length of stay, type of bond, offense on booking, what type of court and what type of crime class. Even with this data there wasn’t enough information to make any conclusions. Kennedy said they then completed a two-year sample of information using the same process totaling 1500 releases. This information was just given to KU Social Services to review.
Gaughan said the first step was to look at the eight charges/crimes that drive the disparity incarceration rates nationally. Two of the leading charges nationally were prostitution and gambling. Douglas County doesn’t have a frequent number of those cases, making the comparison more difficult. The majority of people in the Douglas County Jail are in for DUI, battery and theft. Kennedy brought a data pull report from the jail.
Who is in jail today?
• On June 22 there were 250 inmates (our jail holds 186); 67 inmates were farmed out; 50 of the 250 were female, 200 were male; of the farm outs 9 were female and 58 were male.
The 250 broken out by case status:
• 170 were pretrial; 78 were sentenced inmates;
The 250 broken down by crime classes: (This is hard to determine because many have more than one offense. Kennedy determined the leading offense causing longest length of jail time.)
• 104 were felony; 94 with misdemeanor; 51 unknown (not showing up for old offences, probation violation etc.); 15 had a felony underlying charge, 22 had a misdemeanor underlying charge; 14 were possible municipal charges (unable to determine); 1 unarmed infraction.
Per Race:
• The normal daily average is 18% black. On this date, the percentage was higher: 2 Asian, 55 black, 16 Native American, and 177 white inmates including Hispanic.
Pretrial Inmates by leading offense:
• 38 for battery; 2 for fleeing; 8 burglary and felony theft; 4 misdemeanor theft; 14 on serious drug charges; 27 on aggravated crimes (with weapon); 15 on high felony (rape/murder/multiple battery in 5 yrs/child sex crimes); 2 on misdemeanor and municipal traffic; 26 on failure to appear pretrial (Of those 26: 3 forgery, 6 battery, 3 burglary/theft, 4 drug charges, 10 municipal or out of county failure to appear.)
Sentenced inmates:
• 2(battery/high risk to community); 3 (fleeing or attempting to allude), 2 (misdemeanor theft); 2 (serious drug charges); 5 (aggravate crimes); 1 (high felony crime-3rd offense); 9 (failure to appear); 16 (probation violation); 44 remanded by court. (of the 44: 12 were felony DUI, which is three in 10 years, 6 for battery, 3 aggravated crimes, 1 drug crime, 5 theft, 1 forgery, 16 municipal/ or out of county)
CJCC PROGRAM AND BUDGET UPDATE:
Bob Tryanski has taken on a new role as director of Behavioral Health Projects. He thanked the board for the opportunity to serve on the CJCC as it was a tremendous opportunity to learn how things work and how people serve. He said he appreciates the talent and dedication to getting things right.
Tryanski gave an update on where things are headed. There has been much discussion on adding a Crisis Center to our community. In January, LMH decided they could do a better job by adding mental health services in their building with a Crisis Stabilization Unit where Bert Nash would be instrumental in providing services. This changed the Crisis Center conservations considerably. Also, in the past six months, LMH formed four subgroups/task forces around that initiative: substance abuse and addiction and how that impact crisis in the community; a facility and what it should look like; type of care to be delivered in crisis unit; what happens after the person is discharged from the unit. This group has split to focus on two areas: What does the psychiatric infrastructure look like in our community; and what does casement management look like after a person has a crisis in the hospital?
What can we do to take action while conservations continue around building a crisis center? A coalition of stake holders made the following suggestions/recommendations to the County Commissioners:
1) Support the capital costs of building the unit.
2) Increase/double capacity of Psychiatrists and APRNs, one each to Heartland and Bert Nash. By partnering with Heartland Health, they have the ability to leverage resources around psychiatry. Over time we hope to deliver psych services in a more cost efficient and effective way.
3) Conversations about how primary care physicians can be better served.
4) Elevate our efforts to meet the substance abuse disorder challenges. Looking at DCCCA for a project that would provide social detox services to primarily uninsured men. We are looking at how to bring detox services online before a Crisis Center is built.
5) Provide support for effort (Mike Brouwer, Sheriff, Jail and DA working on) to provide treatment for women in jail in a more timely way.
6) Peer support. There is a real need. When peers are part of the system, there are better results, better connections and better engagement. Train certified peer specialists to better support all agencies in effort.
7) How to provide case management coming out of the hospital. There is an evidence cased best practice called “Assertive Community Treatment” which is a gold standard used to deliver case management to the highest users of behavioral health services. This team consists of specialists in the fields of housing, employment, and drug and alcohol and delivers the services in the community where patients live. Also looking at building a crisis response team to support what is going on in the hospital. We’d like to start by serving small group of people and build from there.
ELECTION OF NEW OFFICERS:
The CJCC will elect a new Chair and Vice-Chair at the September meeting.
NEW HIRES:
Pam Weigand said a new House Arrest officer has been hired and will start July 17.
NEXT MEETING
• Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. Location: TBT
Gaughan moved to adjourn the meeting. Motion was seconded and carried.
Time and Date