EQUITY COMMITTEE
Meeting Date: April 15, 2024
Subject: REPORT on Annual Progress of the Racial Justice Oversight Body (2023)
Submitted For: Esa Ehmen-Krause, Chief Probation Officer
Department: Office of Reentry & Justice (ORJ), Probation Department
Referral No:
Referral Name: Referral on Racial Justice Oversight Body
Presenter: Christopher James, W. Haywood Burns Institute
Contact: Patrice Guillory, ORJ Director, 925-313-4087
Referral History:
In April 2016, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) accepted recommendations from the Public Protection Committee to form a 17-member Racial Justice Task Force and then appointed members to this Task Force in September 2016. After Resource Developments Associates was awarded a contract by the County in February 2017 to provide facilitation and data analysis services, the Racial Justice Task Force was convened from April 2017 through June 2018. During this time the Task Force reviewed data on local criminal and juvenile justice systems and processes, discussed best practices and emerging practices to address racial disparities in those systems and processes, and ultimately developed a set of recommendations that would help the County reduce the identified disparities.
In July 2018, the Board of Supervisors adopted the "Racial Justice Task Force - Final Report and Recommendations" (see Attachment B) with the exclusion of recommendations #18 and #19. The first recommendation called for the establishment of a Racial Justice Oversight Body (RJOB) that would “meet on a quarterly basis” to “oversee the implementation of the recommendations” and provide the County with a report of its activities “on an annual basis.” Based on this recommendation, in November 2018 the Public Protection Committee nominated individuals for appointment to the RJOB, and on December 4, 2018, the Board made the appointments.
Referral Update:
After the Office of Reentry and Justice staff concluded a contractor solicitation process, on April 16, 2019, the Board of Supervisors approved the execution of a contract with the W. Haywood Burns institute (BI) to provide committee consulting and development services for the Racial Justice Oversight Body (RJOB).
In this role, BI was contracted to perform the following services:
Support meaningful participation by all members and efficient and effective decision making;
Create a structure that will allow the RJOB to achieve its objectives;
Assess progress toward two-year work plan for the RJOB, and facilitate RJOB meetings and activities in a way that ensures engagement and participation among RJOB membership in order to meet the Body’s objectives;
Engage and support stakeholders in their efforts to implement recommendations of the Racial Justice Task Force;
Provide the RJOB with research support and subject-matter expertise in areas related to racial justice, criminal and juvenile justice reform, and community engagement;
Produce and present a final public report detailing the RJOB’s progress in addressing racial and ethnic disparities of the local criminal and juvenile justice systems;
In July 2019, BI convened the first quarterly RJOB meeting. Since then BI has helped the body develop Bylaws, structure itself into three subcommittees that have met monthly and bimonthly, and assisted each subcommittee in working toward their objectives as identified in their work plans. Additionally, BI has provided a status report detailing the progress the RJOB has made to date (Attachment A).
Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s):
ACCEPT a report from the W. Haywood Burns Institute on the progress and activities of the County’s Racial Justice Oversight Body in 2023, and provide direction to staff as needed.
Fiscal Impact (if any):
There is no fiscal impact.