To: Board of Directors
From: David O. Livingston, Sheriff-Coroner
Report Title: ADOPT Policy and Procedures of the Office of the Sheriff Custody Alternative Facility Programs
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
RECEIVE and REVIEW the rules and regulations and administrative policy of the Office of the Sheriff’s Electronic Home Detention Program and the Work Alternative Program pursuant to Penal Code sections 1203.016 and 1203.018.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approval of this request will result in no fiscal impact.
BACKGROUND:
In 1983, the Board of Supervisors established the County’s Custody Alternative Program. The Office of the Sheriff Custody Alternative Facility (CAF) manages and operates the County’s offered custody alternatives, which include electronic home detention, a work release program, and remote alcohol monitoring.
The Office of the Sheriff is committed to utilizing resources to their highest potential. This necessitates a strong and progressive custody alternative program that provides alternatives to traditional incarceration while ensuring public safety. The CAF programs provide for public safety, maintain judicial confidence and, at the same time, allow participants to be contributing members of society while fulfilling their court-ordered sentences or as part of a pre-trial alternative for electronic home detention.
The Office of the Sheriff operates the Electronic Home Detention (EHD) Program, which provides a cost-effective detention alternative for the County to manage its jail population. This program is an alternative for participants who would otherwise be incarcerated in a County detention facility, at greater expense, to be placed on home detention and monitoring in lieu of incarceration. The Office of the Sheriff utilizes criteria for admission and disqualification to the EHD Program to assess participants’ suitability while ensuring that the safety of the community is not compromised. Participants are monitored through the use of electronic monitoring technology.
The Office of the Sheriff operates the EHD program for two different types of participants, as set forth in the Penal Code.
Pursuant to Penal Code section 1203.016, the Office of the Sheriff operates a program for convicted inmates. Under Section 1203.016, the Board of Supervisors, in consultation with the Office of the Sheriff, may prescribe reasonable rules and regulations under which the EHD program for convicted inmates may operate.
Pursuant to Penal Code section 1203.018, the Office of the Sheriff also operates a program for pre-trial inmates. Under Section 1203.018, the Board of Supervisors, in consultation with the Office of the Sheriff and the District Attorney’s Office, may prescribe reasonable rules and regulations under which the pre-trial EHD program may operate.
In 2023, the Office of the Sheriff consulted with the District Attorney’s Office regarding the rules and regulations for pre-trial EHD participants. At that time, the District Attorney’s Office approved the rules and regulations for these participants. The Office of the Sheriff has not made substantive changes to the rules and regulations since that time.
Penal Code sections 1203.016 and 1203.018 require that the Board of Supervisors annually review the rules and regulations and the administrative policy of the EHD program. The Office of the Sheriff brought the rules and regulations to the Board of Supervisors on December 17, 2024.
The Office of the Sheriff has conducted a thorough review of its CAF Programs and made minor revisions and updates to the applicable policies, procedures, handbook, and forms. Attached to this staff report are the revisions to: EHD-SCRAM enrollment agreement 2026, the CAF EHD-SCRAM Enrollment Agreement -Spanish 2026, 2.19.03 CAF Policy EHD 2026, and 2.19.04 CAF Policy SWAP 2026. Policy changes made during recent revisions are shown in red. There have been no substantive changes made to the EHD Program since the Board of Supervisors’ approval on December 17, 2024.
It should be noted there will continue to be no cost charged to a participant on the program.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the Board does not approve, the County will be out of compliance with Penal Code sections 1203.016 and 1203.018 regarding the Board’s annual review of the EHD rules, regulations, and administrative policy.