On April 7, 2015, the Board of Supervisors received a letter (attached) from the Contra Costa County Racial Justice Coalition requesting review of topics within the local criminal justice system. The Public Protection Committee (PPC) generally hears all matters related to public safety within the County.
On July 6, 2015, the Committee initiated discussion regarding this referral and directed staff to research certain items identified in the Coalition's letter to the Board of Supervisors and return to the Committee in September 2015.
On September 14, 2015, the Committee received a comprehensive report from staff on current data related to race in the Contra Costa County criminal justice system, information regarding the County's Workplace Diversity Training and information regarding diversity and implicit bias trainings and presentations from across the country.
On December 14, 2015, the Committee received an update from the Public Defender, District Attorney and Probation Department on how best to proceed with an update to the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) report completed in 2008. At that time, the concept of establishing a new task force was discussed. The Committee directed to three departments above to provide a written project scope and task force composition to the Committee for final review. Information from the December report has been included in today's packet to support the discussion, including:
Attachment A – Contra Costa County data on race in criminal justice
The attachment includes:
- Summary of race data in criminal justice systems in Contra Costa County
- Contra Costa County population estimates
- Probation Department data on Pretrial, AB 109 adult and juvenile probation populations
- Superior Court data on criminal case filings and jury service
- Note: The Sheriff’s Office made efforts to provide data on arrested individuals booked into County detention facilities but was unable to complete the report by the time of publication of this agenda.
Attachment B - San Francisco Reinvestment Initiative: Racial and Ethnic Disparities Analysis
Related article: http://sfpublicdefender.org/news/2015/06/study-shocking-racial-disparities-in-sf-courts/
Attachment C – Contra Costa County’s workplace diversity training
The attachment includes:
- Summary of eLearning vendor Target Solutions' Workplace Diversity training materials
- Risk Management memo on diversity training, including completion data by department
- Board policy on required sexual harassment and workplace diversity training
Attachment D – Other Diversity and Implicit Bias trainings and presentations
The attachment includes:
- Governing for Racial Equity (GRE) Conference presentation on Incorporating Race and Justice Principals into Criminal Justice System Policies.
The GRE Network is a regional consortium of government, philanthropy, higher education and the community partnering to achieve racial equity. The GRE Network brings together public sector employees from across the U.S. to end institutional and structural racism, strengthen regional alliances, and increase public will to achieve racial equity. The 2015 conference took place on June 11 & 12 in Seattle, Washington.
- EmTrain’s guide to the online training on Fostering a Diverse & Inclusive Workplace. EmTrain is San Mateo County’s online training vendor and is an approved provider of continuing education.
- King County participant’s guide to their workshop on Addressing Implicit Bias, Racial Anxiety, and Stereotype Threat.
- Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) presentation on Equity in Government.
GARE Director Julie Nelson conducts trainings with elected officials, housing, police officers, commissioners and others that is focused on normalizing conversations about race (delineating the differences between implicit and explicit bias and individual, institutional and structural racism), organizing within institutions and with the community and operationalizing equity. GARE will be launching a year-long learning cohort for jurisdictions in the Bay Area that are at the beginning phases of working on racial equity. For more information, please contact Julie Nelson, Director of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, at julie.nelson62@gmail.com or (206) 816-5104.
At the November 9, 2015 meeting, the Committee received a brief presentation reintroducing the referral to the Committee and providing an update on how the DMC report compares with the statistical data presented at the September meeting. Following discussion, the Committee directed staff to return in December 2015 following discussions between the County Probation Officer, District Attorney and Public Defender with thoughts about how to approach a new DMC initiative in the County.
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