Recommendation | Master List Number |
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| Using memorandum or directives should be a short term solution. Department needs to get more funding and staff to make it a priority to update policies and procedures. | 107 |
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| The jails should have sufficient resources and staff to ensure access to mental health treatment services, discharge planning, etc. | 108 |
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| Updated policies and procedures should accompany with training to ensure staff understand the changes and expectations. | 109 |
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| Full time, benefitted/coded Substance Abuse positions added to the staffing throughout the entire jail system. | 113 |
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| Increase staffing to enable expansion of programs, visitation and non- structured time while providing for the safety of detainees and staff. Investigate staffing levels and provide funds for adequate staffing. | 117 |
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| Establish a time line for implementation for training of staff and reclassification of detainees, and report progress to Board of Supervisors regularly upon implementation. | 133 |
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| Create a systematic review of post CIT training behaviors of all employees to ensure the benefits of the training are clearly demonstrated in all interactions with the inmates. Identify a specific date by which all training and a follow-up plan for all employees is achieved. | 136 |
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| Review training curriculum, hiring and promotional practices for correction staff with experts knowledgeable in the field. Training for issues of mental heath, behavioral needs and mediation techniques should be specific to the work situation inside facilities, which differs from the circumstances faced by patrolling officers. | 137 |
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| Specialized training needs to be developed for all staff working with the Mentally Ill. This training must be different from that given to first responders because staff in the jail work with the mentally ill on an ongoing basis rather than responding to an individual incident. | 138 |
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| Develop and implement specialized behavioral health and crisis training for correctional officers and other jail staff (including behavioral health staff) that is based upon consultation with outside experts regarding best practices, is tailored to the custodial setting and includes the following topics: A. Eliminating stigma around behavioral health disabilities; B. Appropriate response to inmates experiencing behavioral health symptoms or crisis; C. Understanding the rights of inmates with behavioral health disabilities, including the right to reasonable accommodations; D. De-escalation techniques and trauma-informed care; and E. Connecting inmates with appropriate jail services and resources. | 139 |
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| Staff should be allowed to attend 24 hours update training away from their work area in order to achieve effectiveness of the training. Staff should not sit at the floor station (work area) while performing their duties and taking classes on the computer. | 140 |
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| Department needs to bring back the Interpersonal Communication Skills class. | 141 |
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| All custody staff should be trained in CIT or at minimum a similar type of training that is Evidenced based. | 142 |
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| All CIT trained individuals should be mandated to take a CIT refresher course every 3 or 5 years. | 143 |
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| The entire CIT Course used to train officers needs to be evaluated by an outside entity to assess whether or not there is material in the course that may be deemed racist, culturally inappropriate, stigmatizing, and/ or discriminatory. This needs to include every aspect of the course like outside Presenters, material pulled from the internet and used in the training, etc. | 144 |
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| Training in the areas of cultural competency, implicit bias, and procedural justice be brought to current correctional deputies and the Academy. | 145 |
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| Department should conduct a study on staff and inmate ratio of supervision in order to provide safety and secure for both staff and inmates. | 155 |
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| Department should conduct a study on staff and supervisor ratio. | 156 |
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| It is important for officers to work in a safe environment by having adequate staffing. Department should implement minimum staffing requirements. Supervisors should conduct projections and ensure proper staffing is assigned to each unit. | 157 |
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| Assign Rover Officer to each floor at the present time, each unit at the Main Jail is assigned an officer. However, there is no rover or relieve officer assigned to the floor. Consequently, the module officer must lockdown the unit for breaks or escort inmates out of the module for transfer or rehousal. Module officers are expected to perform additional duties such as delivering legal mail to different areas, participate in on-duty training, and relieve officer at the floor station post or lockdown unit. | 158 |
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| Gender-responsive training for all staff beginning at the Academy level | 179 |
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| Two staffing studies have recently been completed for the SCCS. The Sheriff and county supervisors should carefully review them to determine if one or both are valid. If not, consider using NIC resources for educational materials or technical assistance for a third study. The Sheriff and supervisors should not discount the studies based solely on an inability to fund them. Staffing studies are often ideal situations, but they can help prioritize resources to be funded at partial levels. | 199 |
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| As part of the existing or future staffing studies, jail practices should be evaluated to determine minimal staffing levels that will reasonably provide a safe environment for staff and inmates. We suspect that some areas are understaffed, but some practices could be modified to reduce personnel time required on a task. | 200 |
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| Research best practices in correctional learning and develop a new academy and jail training officer program that relies upon adult learning principles. | 201 |
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| Establish clear policies as to when deputies, who are still in training, can be in solo assignments and for how long. | 202 |
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| Develop at least a two-year in-service training calendar that not only covers the necessary skills like firearms qualification, but also classes on communication, inmate rights and legal processes like the Prison Rape Elimination Act, inmate discipline rights and grievance processes. | 203 |
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| Training officers and first line supervisors are the most important people in an organization. Training officers set the work ethic and expectations, and supervisors continue to instill it throughout the rest of an employee’s career. SCCS supervisors, current and future, should be given the proper education and training they need to be more effective. While this will include task level operations, the best return will come from investing in their professional development and helping them recognize and deal with minor misconduct early on. | 204 |
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| Current and future jail leadership should immediately engage in opportunities to learn the current best practices of jail operations through educational seminars and information sharing like NIC’s Large Jail Network and the American Jail Association conferences. A wealth of educational information is online at NIC’s website www.nicic.gov. | 205 |
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| Decision makers should tour model facilities and develop ongoing learning relationships with them. The NIC, the state sheriff’s association or state jail association would be good resources to find jails that are well ran and of similar complexity to Santa Clara’s. | 206 |
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| Ensure that office hours for pretrial detainees and their families are easily accessible and staffed to facilitate timely responses to questions about the inmates’ stay in the jail facilities, navigation of the criminal justice system, and access to court appointed attorneys, advocates, or an ombudsman. | 342 |
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| Ensure that staff are adequately trained in, understand, and consistently apply the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) legal requirements. | 343 |
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| Ensure that the provision of staff training is appropriate, timely, and sufficient to meet staffing needs and to improve and maintain jail security and officer and inmate safety. | 344 |
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| Staff training should promote the rehabilitation of inmates and contribute to reducing recidivism. | 345 |
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| A special emphasis on appropriate use of force should be included in policies, procedures, and the training of staff. | 346 | |
| Raise the current minimum educational qualifications for Sheriffs’ Custody Deputy. Additional consideration should be given applicants with a college degree, mental health college courses, criminal justice courses, or behavioral science course work or pertinent work experience in areas of mental health, behavioral science, or criminal justice system. There needs to be further study to determine the appropriate level of college required. | 398 | |
| Coordinate with the County Employee Services Agency the modification of the current minimum qualifications for Sheriff’s Custody Deputy job specification. | 399 | |
| Increase staffing in the Background and Recruiting Unit to provide additional time per individual applicant background process and to recruit greater numbers of highly qualified candidates in order to reduce staffing vacancies. | 400 | |
| Hire and train an in‐house polygrapher and double the amount of polygraph examinations required of applicants. | 401 | |
| Add three additional investigators to the IA Unit to increase the screening, timely investigation and final resolution of complaints. These positions have been requested as part of the Fiscal Year 2016/2017 Sheriff’s Office budget proposal. | 440 |
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| Add an analyst position for data input and program monitoring of behavior trends. This position was requested as part of the Fiscal Year 2016/2017 Sheriff’s Office budget proposal. | 441 |
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| Add an analyst for each custody facility to collect and process grievances from lock boxes and enter grievances into the new grievance tracking system. Analysts will be required to immediately notify custody supervisors of any basic needs grievances so that they may be resolved as soon as possible. All other grievances will be routed to the appropriate unit for expeditious action. The analyst positions are included in the Sheriff's Office Fiscal Year 2016-2017 budget request. | 442 | |
| Add a Lieutenant at each facility who will ensure a proper and timely resolution of grievances. The Lieutenant will be empowered to immediately resolve all “basic needs” grievances. The Lieutenant positions are included in the Sheriff’s Office Fiscal Year 2016/2017 budget request. | 443 | |
| Add a specially trained correctional deputy to each facility who will conduct interactive, instructional classes for inmates in all housing units on expected behavior in custody. | 444 | |
| Add dedicated custody support staff to multi‐disciplinary healthcare teams to ensure timely access to medical, dental, and mental health treatment. | 445 |
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| Establish a team to respond to crisis situations and/or tactical situations involving those with mental health or other special needs. | 446 | |
| Once policies, procedures, practices, forms, and inmate handbook are revised and adopted, train all staff on the revisions. | 453 | |
| Develop training module for all custody staff to educate them on the purpose of a grievance, the grievance process, and regarding the expectation that they resolve basic needs grievances (blankets, items of clothing, hygiene products, etc.) as soon as possible in an objective and fair manner. All other grievances will be routed to the appropriate unit for expeditious action. | 454 |
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| Implement the training module and ensure all custody staff completes the training module. | 455 | |
| Ensure custody staff are equipped to manage inmates exhibiting or diagnosed with mental health issues. | 457 | |
| Implement a “train‐the‐trainer” program to provide for jail‐specific mental health training needs. Such a program would allow for qualified trainers to provide mental health training to correctional staff, re‐fresher trainings, and ensure that the training principals are being implemented throughout the custody facilities. | 458 | |
| Implement training courses specific to identified needs of inmates to ensure that the needs of all inmates are understood and managed appropriately. | 459 | |
| An additional four hour of Gender Response training is proposed for staff assigned to custodial facilities. | 460 |
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| Provide PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) training to all correctional deputies that have not yet received it. | 461 | |
| Implement training modules for existing staff and academy recruits to ensure compliance with the revised use of force policy. | 462 | |
| To reinforce training on how to recognize mental illness and developmental disabilities, along with a directed focus on if, how and when to deploy de‐escalation techniques and use of force. | 463 | |
| Develop an eight‐hour training curriculum for all staff to ensure a proper understanding and application of the department’s updated Use of Force policy. | 465 | |
| Jail staff and leadership should receive training on what types of conduct constitute prohibited conduct under PREA | 503 | |
| DOC should review and enhance IAU’s staffing levels. | 506 |
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| IAU should become familiar with PREA. | 507 |
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| The Jail should significantly strengthen its internal oversight system. The Internal Audit Unit should receive significant additional staffing. | 509 |
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| The Jail should, among other things, ensure that it has a PREA manager assigned to each facility devoting a meaningful (and PREA-compliant) amount of time to PREA related duties; train staff on and monitor compliance with staff’s obligation to announce the presence on a housing unit of an opposite-sex individual and on interacting with LGBT inmates; clarify its policy regarding protective custody; conduct critical incident reviews and coordinated responses; and revise its zero-tolerance policy to address harassment. | 519 |
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| The Office of the Sheriff should increase staffing levels so that at least two correctional deputies are assigned to each housing unit on all shifts to manage the workload, reduce stress, increase security and safety, and allow correctional deputies more flexibility in dealing with the behavior and needs of all inmates, including those with mental health issues. | 531 |
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| The Office of the Sheriff should increase the number of sergeants on each shift to one sergeant per housing floor in Main Jail and comparable supervision levels at the Elmwood facilities. The Office of the Sheriff should have a watch commander (lieutenant or above) at both Main Jail and Elmwood at all times. | 532 |
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| The Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System should increase clinician staffing levels in the jails to improve the level of support counseling, therapy, and advocacy for mentally ill inmates. | 533 |
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| The Office of the Sheriff should develop or select a custody-centric Crisis Intervention Team training program for the Custody Bureau by December 31, 2016, for immediate implementation. | 538 | |
| The Office of the Sheriff should add content on dealing with mentally ill inmates to the Probationary On-the- Job Training manual. Evaluation criteria should include interaction with mentally ill inmates and those with developmental disabilities, de- escalation techniques, and appropriate use of force. | 539 | |
| The Office of the Sheriff should continue training of custody staff to implement trauma-informed strategies. | 540 | |
| The Office of the Sheriff should report on the status of training and outcomes of training for a more gender responsive jail. | 541 |
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| Gender-responsive training should be given to all staff, including custody, contract, medical, and facility staff, starting at the academy. | 542 |
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| The Dental Program Director should spend a full 1.0 FTE at the Jail. An additional 1.5 dentist and dental assistant FTEs will be needed for Urgent Care waiting times to reach a steady state goal of three days for three months. Once the Urgent Care steady state has been achieved, it is recommended that sufficient staff should be hired to provide Interceptive Care to inmates with at least six months left on their sentence or those who are not adjudicated but are expected to be incarcerated at least six months. Once the Interceptive Care steady state has been achieved, it is recommended that sufficient staff be hired to provide Routine Rehabilitative Care to inmates. | 552 |
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| The intake facility should enhance staffing for medication verification and continuity-of-care process to account for the large volume of prisoners booked into the jail. | 580 |
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| The DOC should conduct formal training for the nurses on appropriate triage techniques and decision- making. | 585 | |
| The DOC should create an actual triage function that is staffed by a dedicated nurse who is properly trained and does triage as the primary responsibility on the shift. | 586 | |
| Adult Custody Health Services should redesign nursing protocols into assessment protocols as opposed to treatment protocols. | 592 | |
| Adult Custody Health Services should schedule patients who need prescriptive care with a medical provider to assess the patient and order the appropriate care. | 593 | |
| The DOC should establish a methodology whereby the in-house clinicians for medical and mental health are available to the institution 24 hours a day, seven days a week. | 594 | |
| The DOC should implement educational programs, staff support, and administrative practices that encourage the nurses to be patient advocates. | 600 | |
| The DOC should create dedicated disease based chronic care clinics that are staffed by an appropriate provider who is knowledgeable in the management of that specific disease process. | 605 |