On April 7, 2015, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) received a letter from the Coalition requesting the review of certain topics within the local criminal justice system. The PPC generally hears all matters related to public safety within the County and was tasked with reviewing this referral by the BOS.
On July 6, 2015, the PPC initiated discussion regarding this referral and directed staff to research certain items identified in the Coalition's letter to the BOS and return to the PPC in September 2015. Specifically, this was with regard to current workplace diversity training for county employees and current data on race in the County criminal justice system.
On September 14, 2015, the PPC received a comprehensive report from staff on current data related to race in the County criminal justice system, information regarding the County workplace diversity training and examples of diversity and implicit bias trainings from across the country.
At the November 9, 2015 meeting, the PPC received a brief presentation reintroducing the referral and providing an update on how a 2008 Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) report compares with the statistical data presented at the September meeting. Following discussion, the PPC 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 study initiative in the County.
On December 14, 2015, the PPC received an update from the County Probation Officer, District Attorney and Public Defender on how best to proceed with an update to the 2008 DMC report; including, establishing a task force to review and update findings from the 2008 report. During the 2008 study, the concept of establishing a new task force was discussed; however, the task force was not formed at that time. The PPC directed the three departments above to provide a written project scope and proposed task force composition for final review.
On February 29, 2016, the PPC received written description of the proposed task force discussed at the December 2015 meeting from the County Probation Officer, District Attorney and Public Defender. The PPC accepted the proposed task force composition and clarified that the three school district seats should be represented by the West Contra Costa Unified School District, the Mount Diablo Unified School District and the Antioch Unified School District. The PPC directed staff to prepare a report for consideration by the full Board of Supervisors and schedule for early April 2016.
On April 12, 2016, the Board of Supervisors accepted a report and related recommendations from the Committee resulting in the formation of a 17-member Disproportionate Minority Contact Task Force composed of the following:
- County Probation Officer
- Public Defender
- District Attorney
- Sheriff-Coroner
- Health Services Director
- Superior Court representative
- County Police Chief’s Association representative
- Mount Diablo Unified School District representative
- Antioch Unified School District representative
- West Contra Costa Unified School District representative
- (5) Community-based organization (CBO) representatives (at least 1 representative from each region of the County and at least one representative from the faith and family community)
- Mental Health representative (not a County employee)
- Public Member – At Large
On August 15, 2016, the Board of Supervisors renamed the Disproportionate Minority Contact Task Force to the Racial Justice Task Force, and appointed individuals to the Task Force.
On June 25, 2018, the Public Protection Committee accepted the "Racial Justice Task Force--Final Report and Recommendations," as prepared by Resource Development Associates and recommended the BOS adopt the report and its recommendations. On July 24, 2018, the Board of Supervisors considered adopting the "Racial Justice Task Force--Final Report and Recommendations," as prepared by Resource Development Associates and decided to adopt the report and recommendations as presented, except for recommendation #18 and recommendation #19. These two recommendations were referred back to the Public Protection Committee as part of a separate referral to solicit further input from both the Sheriff and Racial Justice Task Force.
On August 6, 2018, the Public Protection Committee considered implementation of the Task Force Recommendations and provided the following direction:
- Staff should develop a recruitment process to seat the Racial Justice Oversight Body (RJOB) with the following representation:
- A representative from the Superior Court, as a non-voting member
- The Sheriff or his designee
- The Chief Probation Officer or his designee
- The Public Defender or her designee
- The District Attorney or her designee
- A representative from a local law enforcement agency, nominated by the Contra Costa County Police Chiefs’ Association
- A representative from the Contra Costa County Board of Education
- A representative from a School District
- A representative from Contra Costa County Health Services
- Eight community-based representatives, that include at a minimum:
- Two members of the Racial Justice Coalition,
- Two individuals with prior personal criminal or juvenile justice system involvement,
- Three representatives from community-based organizations that work with individuals in the justice system, including at least one person who works directly with youth
- One representative from a faith-based organization
- One representative that is either a school age youth or from a CBO who provides services to a school age youth
- The process to fill the School Board representative is to be determined by current School Board representatives of the Racial Justice Task Force
- The Racial Justice Coalition will select its two representatives
- Terms on the RJOB representatives should be for two years
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