Public Safety Realignment - ACLU of Northern California

cost savings to the county. 88 In 2011, Santa Cruz’s pretrial detention rate was 56 percent, far belowthe state-wide average. 89 Santa Cruz County’s realignment implementation plan calls for noexpansion at all of jail capacity; in fact, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff has repeatedly informed thecounty CCP that he has been able to reduce his jail population after realignment by expanding the useof electronic monitoring.National Models for Pretrial PoliciesJurisdictions outside of California have had to contend with severe jail overcrowding and fiscalcrises, and many have looked to pretrial reform as a workable solution that protects public safety andensures appearances for court dates while managing jail populations.• Baltimore, Maryland. A JusticePolicy Institute report on the City ofBaltimore’s Pretrial ReleaseServices Program found that of the6,000 to 7,000 pretrial defendantssupervised by the program annually,ninety-six percent (96 percent) ofsupervisees are not arrested on newcharges while awaiting trial. 90Additionally, ninety-four percent(94 percent) of supervisees appearfor their scheduled court date. 91Monitoring a pretrial defendantthrough the program costs the city only $2.50 per day, as opposed to $100 per day to92incarcerate the same person.• Camden County, New Jersey. The Camden Correctional Facility in Camden, New Jerseyendured chronic jail overcrowding for more than 20 years. By 2004, it was operating at 142percent of its designed capacity. 93 The severe overcrowding problem prompted a class actionlawsuit, which ultimately resulted in the implementation of a jail reduction initiative. Afteranalyzing its jail population, Camden found that adopting validated risk assessment tools andalternatives to incarceration for low-risk pretrial defendants could significantly ease theburden on its system. Camden made a number of changes to its management of the jailsystem, the pretrial programs chief among them. As a result, the average daily jail populationfell by 21 percent over one year, amounting to a cost avoidance of over $9 million annually. 94• Washington, D.C. The problems of the money-based bail system were perhaps more glaringin Washington, D.C. than in any other jurisdiction. Even as early as 1963, commentatorscriticized the discriminatory nature of the bail system and its failure to reduce public safetyrisks. 95 Over the next four decades, the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency instituted the gold26