as a committee report. okay, with that, without objection, it's recommended. [ gavel ] again, thank you for your work on this. actually, i'm very excited about what is to come with housing in san francisco, and this definitely gives us a roadmap to begin working in a specific direction and hopefully the results will be realized in the city sooner than later. so thank you all. madame clerk, can you please call items 3 and 4. >> item and 4 is hearing and resolution responding to the presiding judge of superior court civil grand jury report entitled "inquirie into the operation and programs of the san francisco jails." >> mike will be presenting on behalf of the civil grand

jury. >> good afternoon. chairperson breed, supervisor tang, my name is michael skahill. i was a member of 2013-2014 civil grand jury for the city and county of san francisco. today i'm pleased to present the jury's report on the operation and programs of the san francisco jails. this report is a product of cooperation and agreement. this report would not have been possible without the cooperation of people in the san francisco sheriff's department, the five charter schools and adult education programs, the jailhouse services division of the department of public health as well as the staff of the san francisco general hospital, and members of the san francisco police department, as well as jail inmates. this report presented findings through discussion and through numerous site visits, many

interviews and comprehensive literature review and evaluation of pages and pages of documentation. there is no requirement that a report be generated by the jury. however, the 2013-2014 civil grand jury has generated a report that contains four findings and 13 recommendations. regarding the fourth finding and corresponding recommendation &%fos from the jails reports, the jury reports the five key charter schools and adult education programs and the community partnerships established by the sheriff's department to provide for these programs. we applaud that educational and community programs offered inside the jails are also

available to inmates post-release, providing a path of continuity to completion and graduation and potential job opportunities. because completion and graduation from these programs is positively correlated to reducing recidivism, to continue these opportunities. i wish to take advantagest public present on the jury's report to encourage business and community leaders to embrace these partnerships as opportunity for positive change and hope for productive life post-incarceration and as an investment in our community. jury members looked forward to reviewing a revised inmate happened book and this resource for inmates is required under the california code of regulations title 15, minimum standards for local detention facilities. the jury was concerned that the

current orientation materials may be too sophisticated for many inmates. to assure that inmates have the necessary information to understand expected behaviors, daily routines and procedures within jails, the jury associates with its third finding recommendation that inmate hand book be revised to reflect the literacy levels of the jail population. and into the operation of the san francisco jails including a review and update of policy and procedure documents, particularly related to the instances of interdepartmental cooperation with san francisco police department, and associated -- as associated with the station transfer unit operations and with jailhouse services and provision of medical and psychiatric services to inmates. our review of policy and procedure documents found some of these documents were due for

regulary scheduled review and others provide answers to questions that arose during our inquiry and others would benefit from experience developed during implementation of new programs. the last finding and associated recommendation that i will discuss is actually the first finding and recommendation in the written report. this finding requests action on the part of the board of supervisors. during review of financial documents, we saw overtime expenditures of $10.7 million, and an in additional $3.5 million associated with job-related injury and illness. we understand that there are many complex variables that work on these issues, but believe that we see a circular flow relationship where absent from work and staffing levels described by the state board of corrections resulting in

mandatory overtime and excessive overtime, where 15 [tko*-pt/]s are deputis are working over 50% full-time equivalent under civil ordinance. that this overtime contributes to fatigue, increasing the instance of job-related injury and illness and again and again, like that. and where the administration of disability claims is a complicated and costly endeavor, not just for the sheriff's department but for the departments citywide. because it is difficult to establish these causal relationships and we're concerned about employees and deputies suffering job-related injuries and the costs to the sheriff's department and the city official, we recommend that the board of supervisors address this issue through an audit by the budget and

legislative analyst. that the board of supervisors take up the issue for advocacy and reform. thank you, chairperson breed and supervisor tang. this concludes our report on the operations "ip quirie into the operations and programs of the san francisco jails." >> thank you. no questions at this time. so we have representative from the sheriff's department who will be presenting on this item today . >> chair breed, vice-chair tang i'm the cfo of the

sheriff's department and joined by chief deputy and others. the sheriff was unable to attend today due to illness and he sends his regrets. i would like to begin by thanking the members of civil grand jury for all of their hard work and their focus on the sheriff's department. they brought up a lot of great recommendations that we think will move all of us forward in our shared goal of protecting the safety of the public. also, i would like to note that while the civil grand jury's only required to look at the custody function and prior audits have focused solely on the custody function, we are a full-service law enforcement agency and we provide penalopy of services that fall under the rubric. for example, we provide public security at a

number of city departments, in addition, we have staff out in the field, who are looking for people who have outstanding warrants and a k-9 unit that conducts bomb and drug sniffing activities. so we take a look at those functions and provide their insight in those areas as well. the civil grand jury focused -- findings focused on four areas and i will respond to each of those areas one at a time. the first one -- the first finding and recommendations related to disability. the first recommendation was that the sheriff's department should follow city policy for limited time temporary disability attainments and we found this requires further amion analysis. i think the challenge is that

interdepartmental collaboration and interjurisdictional collaboration is really challenging and time-consuming process. it takes the corporation of our department with workers' compensation, with state retirement, as well as city reisolated storm and you can imagine the process. and this is not a problem that is unique to the sheriff's department, and is, in fact, shared by most city departments. so we would certainly welcome participating in the citywide solution to this problem. in addition, and i will go into this in greater detail in the next slide, we definitely agree that disability is reducing the number of staff that is able to work on a daily basis and driving up our overtime costs. the second recommendation was actually directed to the board of supervisors and that was that they ask the budget and

legislative analyst to conduct review of workers' compensation payments and relationship between workers' compensation and overtime and we would work the input op this issue. the third recommendation is that we should review safety programs with work development and we found this recommendation requires further analysis. we have already conducted an analysis of the first six months of 2014 workers' compensation injuries and compared those to '12-13 and already taken that analysis and moved to make changes to our training program and to work with our facilities staff to take corrective action to move the department forward. in addition, we are going to reach out to the workers' compensation staff to review our findings with them, and come up with some next-steps that we'll continue to move our department forward. in the fourth recommendation this area, the department

should communicate with workers' compensation to review ongoing status of outstanding claims. we have a very close relationship with workers' compensation, and have worked very closely with the team and we would like to continue to do so. so in this vein, we're going to set up quarterly regular meetings with workers' compensation and addition we'll reach out to the cc sf retirement to set up regular meetings as well. so i want to spend a minute talking about the impact of long-term disability on the department. and to be honest it's really one of the primary drivers of overtime, which is one of the primary drivers of the department's financial condition. we took a look at the first three full pay periods of this fiscal year, and looked at the number of hours that had been worked for both paid and unpaid disability and projected that forward to the end of the fiscal year. if the department meets its --

stays within its overtime budget, by the end of the year, 38% of the hours of overtime worked will have been worked due to people who are out on disability. and that equates to $3.6 million. out of an overtime budget of $9.5 million, you can see that is quite significant. and if you take those hours and equate them into fte, by the end of the year we'll have 25 fte hours and that is really quite a significant flush. number and to drive this number home, this program has been worsening with time if you compare the same three pay periods to last fiscal year 3300 hours more have been worked -- have not been worked due to disability than

'13-14 and if you project that out to the end of the year, that is $1.5 million. so we agree this is an incredibly challenging department that is a problem that is facing our department and in our '15-16 budget we'll be seeking to correct this problem by looking for funding for 25 additional sheriff's deputies to back fill the staff that are unlikely to return. moving on to the second area of inquiry which was the custody function with regard to transfer of custody, and shared custody? the first recommendation was that the department review and update policy for conducting daily activities, planning and preparing for emergencies every two years. we do regularly update our policies, and, in fact the b scc, which is sort of the keeper of title 15 reviews this every two years and our last review, which was conducted, july, 2013 found that we meet or exceed all of the title 15

requirements. and we will continue to review our policies every two years and continue to update them as operational needs dictate. the second recommendation was that the department should review and update procedures for staffing of inmates, housed in the general wards of san francisco germ. general. if an inmate has either medical or psychological conditions that require hospitalization, they can be housed in what is staffed by deputies. if there are only two people in that ward, they then go to general beds within the general ward of san francisco general and staffed on 1:1 basis by our

deputy sheriffs. so we have reviewed our policy in relation to staffing this area and as i have just articulated, we have clarified our policy. recommendation 2c is that the department should clarify procedures for transfering inmates -- again to provide a little bit of context. what might happen is that prior to being booked an inmate would be found to have a medical condition, for example a laceration that would have to be stitched. they would be transferred to san francisco general and then booked into custody. but since the civil grand jury did its audit we have already updated this policy in july of 2014 and

we'll be moving to implement a policy where all of the ins and outs of these kinds of individuals are tracked. that will be implemented by october, 2014. and final recommendation in this area, the department should establish procedures for transporting intoxicated inmate or inmates that need minor medic idealing care. to provide context if you are not familiar with jail operations when someone is arrest and brought to county jail 1 for book, the very first step is that they are reviewed by triage nurse and that nurse states if they have any medical or psychological needs that need to be attended prior to being booked into jails. we worked closely with dph to follow their directives with regards how to handle inmates who either have medical or psychological conditions prior to being booked. the third area of inquiry was

inmate orientation. again, to provide you some context, when an inmate is first booked into the jail, they are placed into what is called the classification pod. where they are hold for 72 hours, and the classification team reviews criminalgenic profile to determine risks prior to placing them into one of the long-term housing areas of the jail. in those classification pods, both civilian and sworn task members are given oral orientation and give orientation guides. inmates in a specialized pod that housing inmates returned from state jails, people are given special orientation to familiarize them with the activities of the reentry pod because the procedures are slightly different there.

we consistently update this operations manual as orientation manual as operationational conditions change and currently in the process of this review. pursuant to the second recommendation we're working with the five key charter schools he educational staff to make sure it's appropriate for the reading levels of the inmates who are housed in our jails. the final air of inquiry was in regards to a policy area that is near and dear to the sheriff's heart and policies. they recommended that the five key charter schools is the nation's first in-jail charter school and nationally recognized organization that

helps inmates get their ged as they are incarcerated. it has a five-member board, that encompasses all three of the critical elements of the criminal justice system. and we found that this recommendation requires further analysis, because we would like to spend a little bit more time thinking about how an advisory committee would interact with the existing board of the five keys charter schools? and in working with steve good, who heads the five key charter

school, we're really wanting to focus on including more academic professionals and getting their input in a formal policy advisory way. so in the coming months we'll be conducting an analysis, to determine the best way to implement this recommendation. >> can we pause for a moment? i have a quick question. currently the curriculum is not set by academic professionals >> it's a ged equivalent program, which is -- there are national educational standards but if we were to add additional advisory elements to the board itself or create an advisory committee, we think that is the policy area that would -- that could most benefit from additional attention. because we have already covered the sworn, the reentry, and then formally incarcerated. >> thank you. >> and the last recommendation

in this area is that the department should conduct further outreach into the community to incorporate job opportunities for the graduates of the five keys charter school. so the way that we would like to do this is by increasing the department's vocational offerings and opportunities. in the last budget cycle we provided two innovative programs, neither of which were funded and we're going to present again in the '15-16 budget cycle and we would love the board's support for those two items. the first is vocational city build pod and the concept is that we would partner with the labors communitis and training foundation to provide an 8-week in-custody training program that results in inmates getting real useful construction skills that they can apply when they leave the jails. and to link that training with

both getting formal certifications in construction and with post employment opportunities. over the last year we had meetings with four entities who expressed interest in support of the concept. so in the coming months we'll continue to flush out your budget proposal and anticipate submitting a request for funds in '15-16. the second is for a post custody cafe, and here what we would like to do is partner with a non-profit, that has experience in running social enterprises. start with an in-custody training program, that will provide inmates with skills in the hospitality arena and which will result in a job readiness certificate. following participation in that program, we would like to see

them graduate from the jails and enter a post-custody training program, where they are getting skills barista, skills and baking skills and career training and then transition them into collaborative efforts with a non-profit partner, utilizing that school and would like the cafe to be in it the sheriff's department building that focuses on services for women. so that they could move from training in-custody to training out of custody, to real linkages with jobs. our next steps here are to tight-end a find a community partner to collaborate with us. so this concludes my review of the findings and recommendations. i would be happy to answer questions. >> we have no questions at this time. >> thank you. >> is there a representative from the department of human

resources to respond to components? okay. come forward, please. >> good afternoon. chair greed, commissioner tang, i'm susan guard and this is my colleague peggy sugerman. >> thank you. >> would you like to address -- would you like us to address the issues in the report? >> yes, please. >> great. so one of the findings from the report states that more than 50 deputies are present ly out on disability and this results in overtime costs and additional workload for the staff. we agree with the findings and would like to make clarifications and like to specifically address recommendation 1c and

recommendation 1d and then talk a little bit more about the parameters and the issues related to long-term disability and folks out on workers' compensation. >> okay. >> so recommendation 1c states that the sheriff's department should review its safety program with the workforce development division and analyze the cause of the worker injuris and update safety program for both staff and inmates. so instead of the workforce development division, the workers' compensation division which is peggy's department, is very well-suited to work ith with the sheriff's department on safety programs for staff and inmates. we're in close relation to them and further analyze the cause of worker injuris and proactively assist the sheriff's department with this analysis. the workers' compensation division -- neither the workers' compensation division,

nor the office of economic and workforce development have expertise in inmate health and safety to provide further assistance to the sheriff's department in those areas, but certainly with relation to worker health and safety, we are ready and willing to collaborate more closely with the sheriff's department on those. so then in regards to recommendation 1d, over the last year, the dhr workers' compensation division has revamped its claims team for the sheriff's department, and has implemented a close communications process. the dhr workers' compensation team communicates on a weekly basis with the assigned staff at the sheriff's department, to review the ongoing status of outstanding claims. and we regularly conduct claims reviews with the sheriff's department. so that we can ensure claims are brought to closure as quickly as possible. so we believe strongly in this recommendation and we feel that we are currently implementing this. so those are the two

recommendations in which dhr is mentioned specifically, but we would like to talk just a little bit more about recommendation 1a. that recommendation states that the city's policy for limited time temporary disability payments should be followed for the sheriff's department and thereby eventually moving to closure of those claims. therefore, opening the positions up for new-hires. so as a little bit of background, whether which employees are unable to perform their duties while recovering from injury they get a temporary total disability. so the time is governed by state workers' compensation law and medical opinion. the state code section "offprovides employees with full salary for one year in the event that they are unable to do their job while they are recovering.

in addition to that, all workers get 104 weeks. so there is another year of temporary disability benefits that are available to public safety employees beyond that one year. so as such deputies could receive that. as the sheriff's department alluded to there is a challenge in terms of connecting the permanent disability benefits with the retirement benefits and peggy is certainly more of an expert than i, but i will simply say once a worker is found permanently disabled and they are not able to return to their job, they go to the retirement department to get industrial retirement, but they have to basically retry their case in front of retirement board again. so that challenge of moving from permanent disability and workers' compensation to a place of industrial disability where

that position is open, is one that is challenging, and can take a considerable period of time. so while the city seeks to influence legislation related to workers' compensation, these laws are beyond the control of the workers' compensation division at this time. and i will just add, right now, there is a bill on the governor's desk, which if he signs will give public safety officers an additional year of full salary offwork should they have a workers' compensation claim that prevents them from working as they recover. so this that case they go to three years' of disability pay under the california workers' compensation laws. so where we can, what we do about this problem? we have these laws that provide these periods for our disabled workers and we believe that we can help the sheriff's department and all city departments focus on