After months of fighting with budget officials and the Board of Supervisors over cuts to the agency’s $228 million budget, Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott, an adviser to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, said negotiations with county officials had been productive.   Report from AZCentral.com.

“Unless I’ve totally misread this thing, I think we’re extremely close to an agreement, and public safety will not be affected,” Hendershott said.  The Sheriff’s Office could take a $7.6 million cut to its general fund, which primarily pays for law-enforcement patrol, and a $10.1 million cut to its detention fund, which covers jail operations, memos show. Officials are still negotiating the budget and said these are tentative cuts. The memos indicate that public safety would not be jeopardized by the following cuts, a goal of both sides:

• Eliminate vacant civilian positions to save $2.3 million. It is unclear how many positions could be cut and how many are now filled.

• Discontinue vehicle rentals to save $411,000. The rentals are used for investigations, picking up abused animals and transporting equipment.

• Reduce costs for aviation, ammunition, uniforms, supplies, education and travel to save about $1.4 million.

• Reduce overtime for patrol officers, administrative staff and other employees to save $1.4 million.

• Reduce extradition and travel to save $500,000.

• Eliminate vacant positions to save $3 million; this cut would not affect detention officers.

• Change the jails’ food-distribution system to save $926,000.

Hendershott said budget officials would trim the general fund by increasing the number of furlough days to 15 for all staff to save $3.6 million, cutting four sworn but vacant captain positions to save $626,000 and reducing repairs and maintenance by $500,000 for technology programs.  On the detention side, Hendershott said budget officials would increase the number of furlough days to 13 to save $6.2 million.

There is more background and detail in the full article at AZCentral.com.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, Arizona, Economic Issues, Personnel Issues

Members of Congress asked the Justice and Homeland Security Departments on Friday to investigate accusations that Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County AZ has engaged in a pattern of racial profiling and other abuses against Latino residents. As reported by the New York Times.

Four members of the House Judiciary Committee, including the chairman, John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, raised of concerns about the sheriff … Sheriff Arpaio, a publicity magnet who is a hero to those who campaign against illegal immigration and a pariah to immigration advocates, brushed off the requests as political high jinks. “If they have concerns, they can call the F.B.I.,” Sheriff Arpaio said in an interview, promising to continue enforcing immigration laws.

The lawmakers asked the Justice Department to conduct a civil rights investigation of the sheriff’s practices, which in the past year have drawn complaints from civil libertarians and Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix. They accused sheriff’s deputies of unlawfully singling out Latinos for immigration checks during several crime sweeps …

The members of Congress also asked the Homeland Security Department, now headed by Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor, to reassess its agreement with the sheriff that allows deputies trained by the department to check the immigration status of detainees.  Sean Smith, a spokesman for Ms. Napolitano, who has been friendly with the sheriff but as governor had also expressed concerns about some of his tactics, said she had already ordered a review of the program, known as 287(g), which allows immigration officials to train and work with dozens of local law enforcement agencies. “Because of the questions about how 287(g) agreements are administered, and if uniform standards are being applied, Secretary Napolitano has asked for a review of the entire program,” Mr. Smith said in a statement …

Sheriff Arpaio said the members of Congress were misinformed or misunderstood his actions. He said that his deputies had not improperly singled out Latinos and that even if the agreement with federal immigration authorities was revoked, he would continue to enforce state laws aimed at human smugglers.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, Arizona

Last week we reported on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s decision to segregate illegal aliens from the rest of the Maricoipa County Jail population.  It seems that decision has caused some issues, as reported by KTAR-TV.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meets today to discuss possible legal ramifications of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s decision to segregate illegal immigrants in a special area at his Tent City Jail.   Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox has denounced the move as unconstitutional and vowed to seek an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.  Immigrants rights activist Elias Bermudez said Arpaio’s move of about 200 illegal immigrants inmates to Tent City last week “is truly trying to say to all of us, ‘I really don’t care about human rights, I really don’t care about being human.’”  Bermudez called the move “abusive grandstanding” …

Even County Attorney Andrew Thomas broke ranks with his closest political ally Thursday by criticizing Arpaio’s decision to segregate the illegal immigrants.

Arpaio said the move was designed to make it easier for immigrants to have visits with officials of their home countries and to make room for other inmates at higher security jails. The sheriff told News/Talk 92-3 KTAR’s Jay Lawrence Sunday night that it is not uncommon to separate prisoners.   “We segregate sex violators, those who assault police, women. We do this all the time,” Arpaio said.  He said he will not attend today’s supervisors’ meeting. “Are you kidding? I’ve got more important things to do.”

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens

The self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” has announced plans to keep illegal immigrants separate from the rest of the inmate population at tents in Phoenix that house prisoners, as reported by the AP.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio accompanied about 200 inmates — along with members of the media — from an area jail to Tent City on Wednesday.   “This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape,” Arpaio said in a news release. “But this is a fence they won’t want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock, literally,” he said, referring to the electric fence that surrounds the area.   Arpaio said housing the illegal immigrants separately would save money, although he did not explain how other than to say it’s cheaper to house inmates in tents than at traditional jails.

But there is opposition:

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said she thinks Arpaio could potentially be violating the immigrants’ rights by keeping them separated, and that she’d like to talk to the Justice Department and have staff there issue an opinion.  “Any time you treat people differently for no reason, you stand to violate rights,” she said. “We treat people equally in America. I think it’s wrong.”   She said the move is a publicity stunt and that Arpaio has done nothing to show the supervisors how it would save money.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens

The fees that cities and towns pay to book prisoners at Maricopa County jails are decreasing after years of increases that frustrated local police departments.

The new booking fee drops 4 percent, to $192.26. The price to house and care for an inmate drops 3 percent, to $71.66 a day. The prices will take effect July 1. Valley cities pay for the booking and housing costs for people accused of misdemeanors such as shoplifting, prostitution and drunken driving.   Misdemeanors make up the bulk of arrests.

Costs of detention declined because of cuts to county budgets, which help pay for jail operations, said Lee Ann Bohn, deputy budget director. When county officials budgeted less money to cover jail operations, they needed fewer municipal dollars to operate the facilities and passed those savings along to the cities. The new costs mean big savings for local governments struggling to pay the bills.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, County-City Issues

In a long and comprehensive piece in Government Technology, the problems with GPS monitoring of sex offenders are examined.

GPS monitoring — embraced as a simple technological solution for tracking the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders — is proving to be something less than a silver bullet for state and local public safety agencies … But there are problems with the way the technology is used and monitored. False alarms number in the thousands in some jurisdictions, straining manpower and casting doubt on the viability of GPS as a tracking tool for high-profile felons. In Arizona, a 2007 legislative study found more than 35,000 false alerts by 140 subjects wearing the GPS-monitoring devices …

In California, the percentage of transient parolees, those who’ve been declared homeless, has increased by 900 percent since a law was passed that included GPS as part of the solution. Now, officials say, they’re guessing about where the offenders are because more have become transient and the GPS monitoring can be unreliable, especially when the offenders lack real housing where they can charge the devices.   And in Connecticut, officials are pushing for a state-run monitoring facility to keep track of offenders being monitored by GPS after numerous false alarms involving several subjects, including one whose case prompted action …

A Connecticut Court Support Services report acknowledged a general misconception about GPS and sex offender supervision, and frustration for law enforcement officials who must deal with voluminous false alerts. The report acknowledged that probation officers’ work hours don’t extend into the nighttime and weekends, and probation officers must respond to alerts while off duty. If the officer is out of cellular range or not near a computer, he or she may be unable to review the tracking data.  The report recommends assigning a secondary officer to high-profile cases to cover for the primary officer when he or she is unavailable. It also recommended a monitoring center to screen GPS and electronic-monitoring data and alerts at all times …

Critics contend that the law is making sex offenders harder to track because some, either intentionally or not, are becoming homeless.  And the trouble with homeless sex offenders is there may be nowhere to recharge the unit’s batteries. “GPS units need to be plugged into a wall,” said Robert Coombs, director of public affairs for the California Sex Offender Management Board. “So it is a real problem that these guys have gone transient, and unless we let them into our public libraries or Starbucks or any other place where they can plug in, we’re not going to be able to maintain this problem.” Before the 2008 law passed, 88 registered sex offenders were homeless. That number has risen to more than 1,000 since then, and it’s because the law focuses on GPS, Coombs said …

Sources said policymakers have made promises about the technology that won’t hold up. “In our business, they invent these things, they advertise and the attorney sells the judge, ‘Rather than put my client in jail, put him on the GPS,”‘ said Mike Goss, deputy chief of the Maricopa County, Ariz., Adult Probation Department. “It’s a snazzy thing; it’s become sort of a fad.”

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, Arizona, California, Community Corrections, Connecticut, Electronic Monitoring, Sex Offenders

Inmates in Maricopa County AZ jails are often housed in unsanitary conditions with inadequate food and health care, more than 30 years after a lawsuit was filed aimed at reforming the jails, a federal judge ruled.

In his ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Neil Wake ordered that anyone housed in intake units longer than 24 hours must receive a bed or mattress. Inmates must also have access to working sinks and toilets and care that meets their medical and mental health needs, he ruled … The courts had previously issued orders in 1981 and 1995 aimed at bringing conditions at the jails in Arizona’s most populous county into compliance. Wake’s ruling Wednesday updated a 1995 decree. While ordering a series of improvements, the judge did find that the jails — which hold some 10,000 inmates — already met or exceeded constitutional requirements in some respects, and ended some provisions of the 1995 decree.

In a news release, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he was pleased the case was over.

“I have always maintained that we run a safe and constitutionally adequate jail system,” Arpaio said.

More details at the AP.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, Inmate Health, Inmate Lawsuits

A national health commission has revoked the accreditation of Maricopa County’s jails, saying the facilities failed to meet federal standards for care and that county officials provided incorrect information to the accrediting agency.

The accreditation is state-mandated and helps the county defend itself against lawsuits brought against the system by inmates; the accreditation provides a set of criteria that Correctional Health Services employees can use to guarantee they are providing quality care.  Inspectors generally review medical charts for completeness, make sure prescriptions were property counted for, that physicians signed orders, and that inmates received timely and adequate treatment …

Betty Adams, director of the county’s Correctional Health Services, has filed an appeal with the national accrediting organization, asking the group to reconsider its opinion that county inmates are receiving poor access to health care. The jail can remain accredited through the appeals process … The notification shocked county officials, who were preparing for a visit this month by the group. Representatives from the national commission were scheduled to perform a full review of health-care programs in December. Adams stands by the quality of care provided in county jail facilities, saying it exceeds constitutionally mandated minimums. “We don’t just provide civil-rights level of care – we provide good care,” she said …

Sandi Wilson, deputy county manager, said a loss of accreditation could affect the county’s liability and lawsuits.   “If someone’s suing you over care, you want to be accredited,” she said. “They have standards they have to meet to ensure they’re getting good quality of care. We want to be accredited.”

More details at The Arizona Republic.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, Inmate Health

• Expansion of West Virginia Prison adds jobs.
• Delaware County PA votes to seek another private operator after GEO pulls out of the jail.
• Meanwhile, Phoenix decides it is cheaper to stay with Maricopa County than to hire a private jailer.
• Iowa DOC proposes status-quo budget for 2010, but requests more money if available.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, GEO, Iowa, PA Delaware County, Private Prisons, West Virginia

• Yolo County CA agrees to State plan for re-entry facility, plus funds for a new jail.
• Maricopa County AZ bans candies from juvenile inmates in effort to improve health.

vericatrajkova AZ Maricopa County, CA Yolo County, Inmate Health, Re-Entry