asizo17 ‘State of Utah Nall -Oustandng concars about Operation Ro Grane h Outstanding concerns about Operation Rio Grande 2 mess: Bon McAdams ‘To: Spencer Cong Jon Pierpont Co: Noella Sudbury =Nsu Ieo.org> Lieutenant Governor, Thahk you for your call last night. In response, I want to summarize our concerns: with the plans as proposed. Let me begin by saying the downtown environment near Rio Grande Streets chaotic and dangerous, Immediate action fo improve public safety is critical | fully support arresting and jailing criminals who are targeting and exploiting the vulnerable among us. However, one of the strategies | have heard coming from the law enforcement committee is that the plan is not to be strategic, but to simply arrest everyone in sight who is engaged in misdemeanor activity, | fear that this type of approach may unnecessarily include those who are homeless and suffer from mental health and addiction issues and have nowhere else to go. These individuals will be swept up and jailed along with the criminals who immediately threaten public safely. This troubles me. Until alternative treatment and diversion options are secured, these arrests wil result in both human costs and taxpayer expense, It wll leave individuals worse off and make the current problems more complicated, My office has not been part of the law enforcement planning efforts so our understanding may be incomplete. However, in a meeting Friday with my division directors, many concerns were raised, including the following: The jail has severe capacity limitations with processing and booking. Pre-trial screening for individuals entering jeilis required and there may not be enough room or staff at the jail to meet the anticipated volume of Rio Grande bookings. No one on my team is sure what the release plan is for individuals in Phase 1. Where will arrestees go after they are released from the jail? If they are arrested for low-level misdemeanors and can't be held, where will they go after being processed? Is there a release plan in place, or will they exit en masse to South Salt Lake? That community cannot absorb the high volume of individuals we understand is being forecasted by the law enforcement committee. Without a place to go, itis likely many will make their way back to the Rio Grande area, and if we have nothing cone vee went sransonsnavareEWUEKANARE HM... 1Hastzot7 ‘toto of Uish Mail - Outstanding concees about Operation Ro Grande there to offer them, we are setting them up to be re-arrested, Recidivism rates will increase, as misdemeanor offenses are added to individuals’ records. Each additional charge will result in new court appearances, the likelihood of new arrest warrants issued and ineligibility for pretrial release forcing people to remain in jail. Misdemeanants will turn into felons making it harder for individuals to get out of the criminal justice system, find housing and gain employment. It will be harder, not easier, for us to address people's problems when we finish Phase 1. + The averdje jail stay for an individual is 26 days at a cost of $96 per day. | am worried that if the repeated arrests continue that we will not have any jail beds left when we get to Phase 2. This: vil affect our ability to conduct our screening process in the jail and will negatively impact our treatment retention, We know from experience that if the threat of a jail bed is not there, many have no incentive to stay engaged in treatment. We are very concerned that the Court Alternative Treatment Services (CATS) program—a court-ordered program where 182 nonviolent drug offenders currently receive treat ment—is being shuttled to other Jails. What does that do to the term of treatment? What does it do to the family support in place? What does it do to the legal defenders who must now drive to Weber County on a rogular basis to visit them? How will the courts react? What are their plans to deal with these issues? We believe that hosting the CATS program at satellite locations is not sustainable considering the lengthy commute times for counselors for this program. The CATS program should be returned to the Salt Lake County jail as quickly as possible. We are also concemed about a short-term impact to the capacity of this program, which we understand will be reduced by half. We were heartened to receive assurances from Rollin Cook that the program will be restored to full capacity within one week from August 11. We understand that the realities of Inadequate funding for the population in need of behavioral health services since the adoption of JRI mean treatment options are not available on demand for Phase |. However, we should at a minimum avoid causing ‘any harm to programs currently funded and operational. We expect o see the CATS program restored to full capacity within the one-week timeline. Furthermore, Potential disruption to the CATS program is also concerning because successful completion of this program is a criteria identifed by state statute for individuals seeking Medicaid eligibility under the State's proposed extension plan. We are concerned about challenges relating to a jail crowded with many individuals who suffer from mental health and addiction issues who begin to undergo withdrawal in the jail without supervised detox support. This jeopardizes the safety of jail staff and those who are incarcerated, particularly those with alcohol and drug dependencies, many of whom also have compounding medical issues and disabilities, Especially in the midst of the nationwide opioid crisis, the criminal justice system is not prepared to sustain the operation indefinitely at the levels anticipated. Existing programs will be heglected as staff is pulled to assist with jall screenings. The number of clients and workloads on case managers will increase their caseload to unmanageable sizes, impacting the effectiveness of the services and likely resulting in increased recidivism rates across the system. Furthermore, we anticipate there will be a negative impact to in-progress client services as case managers are Overloaded. With appropriate funding, the case management system can eventually grow to meet the demands of a large-scale law enforcement operation, but hiring new case managers has recently taken 2-3 months.anwzor ‘tate of Utah Mail-Outstandlg concerns about Operation Rio Grando While we have been told that the courts can accommodate the increased caseload within existing budgets, we believe strongly that a drug court targeting the misdemeanor drug offenders, along the lines of what Salt Lake County has proposed, is critical to ongoing success of the operation (the existing drug court is for felony offenses, and many individuals who were formerly eligible for felony drug court are no longer eligible due to the reclassification of offenses under the JR). We are worried about the ongoing cost and safety of those involved in the cleanups. As cleanups have been increasing, those in the area have been growing more hostile to staff engaged in these efforts. The camping Is likely to spread and affect other areas of the county. How do we pay for and address this concern? Finally, | am very concerned about the funding. While | appreciate the state’s demonstrated ‘commitment in the short term, | am unclear whether there Is a reliable funding structure identified to cover the costs of the criminal justice system that could be long and lasting from a strategy that is focused on a high number of arrests. | have been assured that efforts are underway to secure dollars for treatment and treatment beds in the near future. | welcome that news and will put the expertise of Salt Lake County's human and behavioral health services fully behind it, as it comes on line. That was the philosophy and approach behind our Operation Diversion last fall, which aligned with the state's Justice Reinvestment Initiative to avold jailing non-violent drug offenders, had JRI received the necessary funding from the State. | want to be very clear that | support and do not oppose taking necessary action to address the lawlessness and restore the public safety in our community. Criminal activity in the Rio Grande area needs to stop. While Salt Lake County has no law enforcement jurisdiction in the Rio Grande area, we have been raising the alarm and calling for assistance from the state and other parties for many months and offering plans to address what we see. We are extremely pleased to now have the support of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to address this crisis. The crisis in Rio Grande is a statewide problem, one caused by statewide issues, and local government cannot solve it alone. | am in total support of strong law enforcement action that restores public safety. However, everything we have learned, after years of trying to address these problems, tells us that the short term gain of a crackdown on drug crime without appropriate treatment and other stabilizing resources brings long term pain, as the fallout from merely arresting and jailing these individuals plays out in our community. ‘As Salt Lake County Mayor, | am responsible for understanding and getting to the root of the problem for both individuals in crisis and for the public. Salt Lake County has a committed and dedicated team and we look forward to collaborating with all partners to keep the public safe and find effective criminal justice system solutions.sowzor7 Sate of Utah Mal - Outstanding concems about Operation Rlo Grande Ben Bon McAdams Ce: Noella Sudbury SNSudbury@sleo.org> ‘Spencer, | want to thank you for a very productive meeting today. Thank you to you and your team for making time for this on such short notice and on a Sunday. My team and | were able to have our concems addressed and clarified. It was a valuable ‘exercise for my team to get all of thelr concerns listed on paper and then to go over thelr concerns with our stata partners, to 800 that many of our concarns ware based on incorrect or outdated information about the plan, and to also have an ‘opportunity to iron out some final detalls and develop a solid understanding of the path forward. We feel confident that our remalning concerns (mainly working to open additional treatment options inthe future) are also shared by the state team ‘and we are working together to move in the right direction as we address a very dificult challenge. We appreciate your partnership and leadership here. We are going to restore the public safely, get dangerous people off our streets and help vulnerable people get connected to the resources that can restore them to stabilly and selt-ellance, It will take time to accomplish these goals, but you've assembled the right team to help us get t done, With gratitude, Bon (voted ot dont