FOR THE COUNCIL MEETING OF AUGUST 15, 2023
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
TO: City Council
FROM: City Manager
Prepared by: Assistant City Manager
SUBJECT: Responses to 2022-2023 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury Report – A Death in Custody Lessons Learned
Description:
The City Council review staff’s recommended responses to the 2022-2023 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury report titled “A Death in Custody | Lessons Learned”.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Review and approve staff’s recommended responses addressing the findings and recommendations from the Grand Jury report titled “A Death in Custody | Lessons Learned”; and authorize the Mayor to sign and transmit the City’s Response to the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court with a copy to the current impaneled Civil Grand Jury and file a copy with the City Clerk’s Office.
BACKGROUND:
On July 15, 2023, the City received the 202 2-2023 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury report titled A Death in Custody | Lessons Learned (Attachment A). The City Council is required to respond to this report within 90 days of receiving it, which provides the City Council until October 15, 2023, to reply to the Grand Jury.
DISCUSSION:
The 2022 -2023 Santa Barbara County Grand Jury issued a report about A Death in Custody | Lessons Learned . This report focuses on the death of an individual while in custody at the Santa Barbara County Jail who suffered from a number of comorbidities as identified in the report.
The report provides a detailed overview of the circumstances surrounding the individual’s death, focusing on the crucial lack of early mental health intervention, which the Grand Jury concludes was a significant factor contributing to the individual’s death.
The Grand Jury report identified findings with recommendations for various agencies , including City of Santa Maria, connected with the processes leading to custody and custody of an individual.
2 Pursuant to California Penal Code Section 933 and 933.05, the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury requests each entity to respond to the enumerated findings and recommendations within the specified statutory time limit.
Responses to Findings shall be either:
Agree
Disagree wholly
Disagree partially with an explanation
Furthermore, responses to Recommendations shall be one of the following:
Has been implemented, with brief summary of implementation actions taken Will be implemented, with an implementation schedule Requires further analysis, with analysis completion date of no more than six months after the publication of the report
Will not be implemented, with an explanation of why
A draft response letter to the Grand Jury is attached (Attachment B).
Alternative(s)
California Penal Code 933(c) states “no later than 90 days after the grand jury submits a final report on the operations of any public agency subject to its reviewing authority, the governing body of the public agency shall comment to the presiding judge of the superior court on the findings and recommendations pertaining to matter s under the control of governing body” and further states “all of these comments and reports shall forthwith be submitted to the presiding judge of the superior court who impaneled the grand jury.” Responses are prescribed per Penal Code 933.05.
Fiscal Considerations
There are no fiscal impacts on the response or implementation of the recommendations.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: A Death in Custody | Lessons Learned
Attachment B: Draft response letter to the Grand Jury