May 8, 2024 • 23 mins
Probation Chief Esa Ehmen-Krause discusses how her team serves Contra Costa County residents, her department’s priorities and outreach efforts for the year, and how Probation has been shifting from a compliance to compassion service model.
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(00:00):
Welcome to government speak.
This is where
we'll cut through
the governmentspeak to get the information
you need about county programs,
services and events.
Street from the source.
On this episode,
we have our Chief probation
officer, ESA
Eamonn Krause,
joining us here in studio
at ten Douglas.
We also have probation.
First public
(00:21):
information officer
Isaiah Thompson here with us.
So Chief
Isaiah, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having us.
Pleasure to be here.
All right.So let's get right into it.
as I understand it,
at a high level
probation
in Contra Costa County
consists of adult supervision,
juvenile supervision,
pretrial monitoring
and juvenile hall.
(00:41):
To those of uswho might not be as well
versed in those services,
can you explain
to the listeners
what are the services
that probation provides?
So it's a great
question, Christy.
And I think that really
to explain this,
it requires a little context
in how much this profession
has evolved as a result
of really critical
reform efforts,
not only in our state,
(01:01):
but really nationwide.
you know, at one point in time,
the easy answer would just be
that probation
was an alternative
to incarceration.
and when I started decades ago
in the industry,
the common understanding
was if you went to prison,
you came out on parole.
And if you either went to jail
or you
you had a community
supervision.
commitment instead
(01:22):
of going into,
you know, into jail
or something,you'd come out on probation.
But, you know,with such pivotal reform
efforts like AB 109,
which created the post-release
community supervision client,
you know,those clients
who can serve
a portion of their
their sentence in prison
and a portion of it
in the community
or all of it in the community
with a portion of it in jail
(01:42):
and then the tail
end of the supervision
in the community.
I thinknow the role of probation
has really evolved.
And we're now, you know, really
a pivotal kind of conduit,
if you will.We we connect our clients
with resources and supports
and those really,
critical components
that allow themto become more stable,
to return to the community.
(02:04):
You know,I like to say we're creating good neighbors.
whereasin the past, it was
really just all
about compliance.
Right.
Monitoring for terms
and conditions of probation.
It's court ordered. Right.
So it used to be very
much compliance driven.
And now I saywe're more compassionate.
We look for how we can,
you know, support our clients
where they're at,
in their life,
with what they need,
(02:26):
and really provide those,
those resources and connections
to both public sector,
you know, services
that serve social safety
net as well as employment
and education and,
you know,kind of run the gamut of what we can do
for our clients.
You touched on something that,
you know, when I've seen how,
those kind of services
(02:47):
are portrayed
on movies and television,
you know,you have characters
who are saying,
hey, I,
you know,I have to call my parole officer.
can you explain the difference
between probation and parole?
So I guess in the
simplest form,
we are a county agency,
and it is different
state by state.
So in in California,
(03:08):
probation is, a local agency.
It's run by counties, right?
And parole is a state agency.
It's run by the Department
of Corrections
and Rehabilitation.
And so
kind of the
easiest way to explain
it would be people on parole
have gone to state prison,
and then they've come out
and they've served
the remaining part
of their sentence on parole.
(03:29):
Some for,
you know, life
very long periods of time.
some of the more violent,
like, sexually
violent predators,
for instance, are on
are on a state parole,
versus our clients
who are on probation terms.
How many clients
are you serving at one time?
You know, atany given time, around
3500 with juveniles and adults.
But that includes
clients on warrant,
bank on warrant status
(03:50):
or or on low risk caseloads.
and then the other interesting
dynamic would be
you've got court probation
and then formal probation.
Right.So court probation is a function
of the courtwhere they can put somebody on,
on a term of probation,
if you will.But we don't actually supervisor monitor
those clients.It's simply court probation.
It's sort of like
paperwork probation
(04:10):
if you will.
So we can still
provide resources
and referrals
to those individuals,
but they're not formally
supervised in any way.
You also
mentioned this
your decades in in this field.
How did you grow up and say,
I want to become a chief
probation officer?
How did you get from, you know,
all of your education
and your expertise
(04:31):
and your experience
to Contra Costa County?
What brought you here?
So the first half of my career,
I would say,was in a state prison system.
I worked forthe Indiana Department
of Correctionsas an administrator,
running juvenile facilities,
and in many cases,
closing juvenile facilities.
but but,
the bulk of my time back then
was, was with,
incarcerated young people.
(04:53):
and then I came to California
in 2011 to the Alameda County
Probation Department,
where I was, deputy chief
and then an assistant chief,
and initially started
working institutions.
And it was so unique
that California system
is just enough different
from Indiana system
that it was a really,
like, seamless transition
from running institutions
(05:13):
to then kind of growing
and evolving my career as well,
into that assistant chief role.
And then here to Contra
Costa in 2020 as the chief.
And and when you
bring into the fold,
the pandemic,
how was that kind of starting
in a new community
in this role?
Yeah, my first day here was the
first day of the pandemic.
oh.
(05:34):
The unique thing
about that, though,
I think, as I mentioned, since
so much of my career prior
to coming to California
was in institutions.
I think thatpositioned us uniquely,
because decompressing
populations was something
that I wasfairly comfortable with.
and just recognizing that,
you know,
our staff weren't the only ones
(05:54):
in a potentially feeling
like the crisis of this, right?
our clients were feeling
very uncertain.
and certainlythe parents of the young people
who we had
in our juvenile hall.
And at the time, we
we operated
a ranch in Byron
called the Warren Allen Youth
Rehabilitation Facility.
I could only imagine
what those parents
were feeling
with the uncertainties
(06:16):
and, you know,
all of the things
we were hearing about
the terrible outcomes
in prisons and in congregate
care environments.
so I really wanted to,
kind of be responsive
and proactive
in addressingsome of those concerns
of our clients
and of our clients
family members.
And then, of course,
(06:37):
we had to takeinto consideration, you know, public safety
and do what was best
for the community,
and not just from a,
you know,
criminal activity standpoint,
but also from, you know,
what will really
what what we could do
to strengthen the community
in this time of uncertainty
and crisis, as I've said.
so I think we were in
a good position.
We very rapidly
depopulated our,
our camp environment
(06:58):
and to the best of our ability,
our juvenile hall.
I worked very closely
with our system partners here,
as well as our partners
just at the state level.
and so I think, you know,
I think we did,
we did a really good job
in this county
responding to it,
but I think that our department
also did a great job
really seeing themselves as
essential service workers.
to some degree, I had to
(07:18):
kind of work
to get my staff
to not come into the office.
I know,
I know,you heard, like, these horror
stories of people
not being ableto get their staff
back into the office.
And I was like,I did not have that problem.
Sometimes I had to say,
we got too many people here,
but but,
my team did a great job.
They jumpedin, and really,
really rose to the challenge.
How big is your team
(07:38):
and is everyone sworn? No.
So we are budgeted
at just under 400.
we've got about,
90 some odd vacancies right now
across the board with sworn
and non sworn staff.
and as I said,
we have both sworn.
So those who are,
you know,
peace officers,
(07:59):
if you will, both
to our institutional officers,
deputy probation officers
and then a variety of
supervisors and above.
And then we have a civilian
civilian staff.
So we've got an amazing team
of administrative
support personnel.
We've got an information
technology division.
we've got anentire fiscal team.
and I saywe cannot do the work
as sworn individuals
(08:20):
without our
non sworn counterparts
because that is so important,
our analytical staff
and and our human
resources staff.
and I would say, you know,
from a,from a numbers standpoint,
it's probably half
and half somewhere
close to that. Okay.
It's not like your team has
(08:41):
sworn officers
who are arresting
people regularly.
I canyou talk about how that works?
So we we arrest
we have arrest authority,
if you will.We have powers of arrest.
but it's limited
in our jurisdiction,
so it's limited in the scope
to those who are on probation.
Now, I will say,
in conversation with chiefs
from around the state,
(09:01):
some smaller departments,
some smaller counties,
their county councils
have opined that
their authority
may be a bit broader than,
I wouldnecessarily feel comfortable
with for our department.
We've got great law
enforcement partners
throughout countless county,
so I don't ever envision
a time wherewe would need to absent
some sort of,
you know, emergency,
(09:23):
in which case
we certainly could step in
and help fill that void.
but but traditionally speaking,
our powers of arrest,
we have a limited
jurisdiction to,
you know, effect arrest
on those currently
under probation.
one of the areas that you've
talked about
is funding prevention efforts,
and keeping young people
out of the justice system
completely. How do you do that?
(09:44):
You mentionedsome system partners.
Who are they
and how dohow does that all fit together?
So we receive what's called JJ,
CPA or Juvenile Justice Crime
Prevention Act dollars
from the state.
passed through
from the federal government.
But a portion of those dollars
locally,we have committed to prevention
efforts, primary,
(10:05):
secondary and tertiary.
So primary would be,
you know,we want to put services
and programs in place
that would ideally
completely divert
that young person from ever
entering into our system,
versus
those who may have
had a light touch
with the systemand were able to jump in
and kind of disrupt
any sort of further,
further trajectory
(10:26):
into our system.
and so we've we've done
a lot ofreally intentional work
locally funding
educational programing,
mentoring, programing,
services in the community,
recreational opportunities
and things of that nature.
in an effort to really
keep the kids busy,
you know,give the kids opportunities,
give the families, resources
(10:47):
to turn to
when they are feeling
kind of at their, you know,
wits end.
whereas, you know,
a decade ago,
a parent may have called
a probation officer
or the school wife called,
you know, the police.
we want to have resources
in the communitywhere we are not.
And law enforcement
is not the first,
industry or entity
that a family or a school
feels like they need
to reach out to.
(11:09):
some of the the,
goals that you've talked
about over the past year
and in looking into the future
of, of probation
and what you're tryingto accomplish there.
First of all, let's talk about
what are you trying
to accomplish.
And andI'd like to touch a little bit
on kind ofsome of the efforts
that you're investing in
in terms of community
outreach and engagement.
And then Isaiah's role.
Yeah.Senate Bill 823 was passed
(11:30):
a few years ago,
and that effectively
closed the Division
of Juvenile Justice
and realigned that population
of what wouldtraditionally be known
as more serious
or violent juvenile
offenders back to the county.
so the county was faced
with creating a program
to really address
the needsof those young people.
And I think we've done
a really great job
because we wereuniquely positioned in that.
We already had some post
(11:51):
dispositional programing
in our facility
that met those needs.
but as I've shared,
you know, very publicly,
we didn't have a lot of time
to plan that.
And across the state,
I think we would all agree that
it's under-resourced
financially,
but also the space
that we were expected
to usefor those young people really isn't ideal for a long
(12:12):
or longer term commitment.
So we're looking at
keeping kids
like upwardsof seven years potentially.
and that's a long time to be in
what was,
you know, designed
and constructed as a short term
juvenile hall detention space.
So we've really tried
to do our best to reimagine
the space that we have.
We recently opened
a multisensory
de-escalation room
in our juvenile hall,
(12:33):
in an effort
just to give the kids
an opportunity to really.
Yeah.
tap into other
cognitive resources
when they're feeling kind
of, like, overstimulated,
or dysregulated emotionally.
But we're going
to be demolishing
our old juvenile hall soon,
which has
been sitting vacant
for very long time.
(12:54):
and ideally, then,
you know,we'll be able to start
to reimagine
in what
a more effective space
for programing
looks likefor these young people.
I was very fortunate
to get the board's support
to turn,
House, which has
now been used
as office space, back
into a residential building,
for this population,
(13:15):
as they have completed
a significant enough,
amount of their programing
and can be court ordered
into a lessrestrictive program.
So we're going to be beginning
the renovation of that location
so that we've got
a more normalized home
like environment
for those young people.
but that's been a big
priority of ours,
is getting this
program launched,
successfully and then trying to
(13:36):
kind of really reimagine
what the space looks like
for these young people.
another priority of ours
is around our transition
age youth population
and really making sure
that we're,
acknowledging adolescent
brain development science
and how we supervise and,
and kind of refer
these young people
for programs and services,
acknowledging that
while many of them
(13:57):
are on adult,
court orders for probation,
anyone who has a transition age
young person could easily say
that while they
might be over 18,
like they still need
that extra support
that a young person
on a juvenile caseload
would probably have.
So we've
we've put a transition age
youth service network in place
in partnership with one of our,
community based organizations
(14:17):
that will serve as like a one
stop shop for referrals,
which just takes the guesswork
out of it for my staff.
And it also helps
take some of the confusion
and frustration out
of it for our kiddos.
when you think about
it, kindof some of the key initiatives
and projects for,
probation, you know,
investing in community outreach
has been one of them
that you've talked
about pretty frequently.
(14:39):
in with the onboarding
of of Isaiah
and having kindof a storyteller on board.
what are you hoping
to accomplish?
So I think probation
as an industrydoes a lot of things well,
but we don't necessarily
talk about ourselves very well.
And so much,
like many people,don't understand the difference
between probation and parole.
I think part of that
we have to take ownership for,
(15:00):
because we don't really talk
about the good work that we do.
We don't wantto tokenize our clients
and parade them around
in front of people.
but with that said,
we also have to get
our story out there.
And if we don'ttell our story correctly,
someone elseis going to tell it incorrectly.
And so it was really
important for me to have,
a dedicated staff person on
(15:21):
board
who would get to
really learn probation
and be able to,
you know, kind of brag about us
in a way that,
is effective and creates
the narrative that we want to
in the community,
but also can respond
when we don't get it right.
Right.Because they're obviously human
behavior, right?They're going to be times
where something does happen
that we also need to make sure
(15:41):
we're messaging that correctly
so that the public realizes
how committed
we are to transparency
and really getting
the message out there
so that we don't have
any other
unintentional misinformation
circulating.
Isaiah,how long have you been with
the county now?
is four going on
five months now 4 or 5 months?
Yeah.And how much have you learned
about probation?
(16:02):
What's what's been surprising?
What's been challenging?
I've learned so much
about probation.
There's so many passionate
peopleended up in the department,
you know, so many passionate
and experienced people
that I just love to go to
and just kind of
just be a sponge and,
you know, get that history
so I can better,
you know, tailor
our messages and,
(16:22):
you know,or just focus on little nuances
that people may not know about.
so it's been it's been
very exciting work for me,
connectingwith all of our stakeholders,
you know, being a community,
council members, our staff,
it's just it's exciting work,
you know,and folks are passionate and,
you know, I'mjust excited for the future.
(16:43):
And I knowwe've been seeing
a lot of traction
on social media getting,
you know, accounts up to speed.
We've got, Twitter, LinkedIn.
We want to plugsome of those out for sure.
we're CC,
probation
on Facebook, Instagram,
we're on Twitter,
we're on LinkedIn
as well, as well as next door
here that everyone go
follow them. That's right.
(17:05):
And if youand if you don't follow them,
our county accounts
will make sure
that the ones
that we're onthe same platforms will share
that information as well.
That's actually,
one of the things that you've
also talked about, chief, is,
you know, shiftingfrom compliance to compassion.
You touched on thisa little bit more briefly,
but I want to talk about that.
that seems very empathetic
in a fieldthat is strongly connected
(17:25):
to a law enforcement angle.
how do youwhat does that mean, and how do you accomplish that?
So I think some of
this stems from my starts,
you know,on the first day of the pandemic,
and just seeing how effective
it was. Right.
I think our department had done
a great job, part of my arrival
with utilizing incentives
through our core
(17:45):
correctional practices
as our evidence base.
one of our best strategies,
but in in addition
to providing things
as an incentive
to positive behavior,
I also recognize
that oftentimes,
you know, in addition
to their current
legal struggles,
our clients are facing
a host of other challenges,
(18:06):
either financially
with transportation,
with feeding their children,
with providing
for daycare and assistance
and things of that nature.
So it's really important for me
and for my entire team
that we look at how we could,
make reasonable and responsible
investments in things
other than just
what you would traditionally
(18:27):
think ofis as those things
that would be sort
of addressingthose criminal genic factors.
So we've increased
our investment
in housing services.
we're now,
providing gift
cards for grocery stores.
We created a sustainability
fund last year through our
AB 109 realignment account,
and throughsome of our juvenile funding, so that we can meet
those urgent
(18:47):
and immediate
one time
assistance needs that
our clients might have,
and really,in a way, to kind of
break down the barriers.
we started,
mobile transport or,
excuse me,mobile probation services
program with three minivans
or threesprinter vans a few years ago
in partnershipwith the Superior Court
as part of our pretrial
monitoring program.
(19:09):
So the transportation
wouldn't be an issue
for our staffif we could take our
our mobile
units out
and they serve as sort of
standalone work
sites for our staff.
So, you know,
if we have a client
in Bethel Island,
they don't have to try
and get to our Antioch office.
Or ifwe have an unsheltered client,
we don't have to try and,
you know,figure out a way for them
to reasonably get to us.
We can bring
our services to them.
(19:30):
And so it was really important
for methat just to look for
where the hurdles are in place,
that would be preventing
our clients
from from really
being successful
and tryingto create opportunities
and pathways for success
to be more attainable.
if there's,
first of all, that's amazing
because you think
(19:50):
about the number of folks
who are engaging
your services every day
and how one
issue in their life
can change
the trajectory of it.
And the factthat you're really focusing on
how do you rehabilitate someone
and help them
reenter society, following,
you know, whatever their
whatever their issues were?
(20:12):
Well,the term rehabilitate implies
that they were at one point
in time, fully functioning.
Right.And so oftentimes
we're meeting our client
at a port point of,
you know, a militating like,
how do wehow do we create the capacity
within this individual
so that they can grow
in, you know, their
their educational performance,
their civic engagement,
(20:32):
right, their legal compliance.
So oftentimes, you know,
we use the word rehabilitate.
But that's making a
pretty big assumption
about our clients.
And so we really try and
take a step back
and like okayso from a foundational level
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
like what do our clients
need to be successful.
And oftentimes it is, you know,
(20:53):
so shelter services or
referrals to the food bank.
We started, having a,
sort of mini food banks,
if you will, at all
of our offices last year.
Just recognizing
that a lot of our clients
had real food instability,
weren't surehow they were going to feed their families.
And sorather than expecting them
to try and find their way
to a food bank
(21:14):
or, you know, a
shelter for a meal,
we startedkeeping a little host
of non-perishables
at all of our offices,
including our juvenile hall,
so that when families come
to visit their young people,
they can just grab a bag
and fill it upwith as much as they want.
You know,we don't track or monitor
just when our rations get low,
we restock.
But, just little things
like that, recognizing that,
(21:34):
you know,if a client is not
really feeling supported
and doesn't have
those kind of core, needs met,
then complying with their court
order terms, condition
is going to be thelast priority on their mind.
if there's
one takeaway from
the discussion today
about probation,
(21:54):
what do you want folks
to remember the most?
Just what?
And
unique role
we play in the community.
We we really are
focused on client success,
and how that leads
to public safety.
So I think that,
you know, oftentimes
people think that probation
has this dual role
(22:16):
where we are social workers
and law enforcement.
But I like to say that
it's it's not a dual role.
It's a third very unique role.
Right.We connect our clients
to opportunities and resources
that willthen lead them to be ready
and really able to receive the,
programing and guidance
(22:37):
that we can then
give themto be more successful.
Well, thank you so much.
that's it for today's show.
I'm your host,Christy Jordan, Contra Costa
County's publicinformation officer.
Thanks for joining us
on the governmentSpeak Podcast, brought to you
by the Office
of Communications and Media.
Don't just take our word
for it.Stay curious,
stay connected
(22:57):
and stay informed.
Until next time,
keep your mind open
and your facts straight.
Welcome to government speak.
This is where
we'll cut through
the governmentspeak to get the information
you need about county programs,
services and events.
Street from the source.
On this episode,
we have our Chief probation
officer, ESA
Eamonn Krause,
joining us here in studio
at ten Douglas.
We also have probation.
First public
(00:21):
information officer
Isaiah Thompson here with us.
So Chief
Isaiah, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having us.
Pleasure to be here.
All right.So let's get right into it.
as I understand it,
at a high level
probation
in Contra Costa County
consists of adult supervision,
juvenile supervision,
pretrial monitoring
and juvenile hall.
(00:41):
To those of uswho might not be as well
versed in those services,
can you explain
to the listeners
what are the services
that probation provides?
So it's a great
question, Christy.
And I think that really
to explain this,
it requires a little context
in how much this profession
has evolved as a result
of really critical
reform efforts,
not only in our state,
(01:01):
but really nationwide.
you know, at one point in time,
the easy answer would just be
that probation
was an alternative
to incarceration.
and when I started decades ago
in the industry,
the common understanding
was if you went to prison,
you came out on parole.
And if you either went to jail
or you
you had a community
supervision.
commitment instead
(01:22):
of going into,
you know, into jail
or something,you'd come out on probation.
But, you know,with such pivotal reform
efforts like AB 109,
which created the post-release
community supervision client,
you know,those clients
who can serve
a portion of their
their sentence in prison
and a portion of it
in the community
or all of it in the community
with a portion of it in jail
(01:42):
and then the tail
end of the supervision
in the community.
I thinknow the role of probation
has really evolved.
And we're now, you know, really
a pivotal kind of conduit,
if you will.We we connect our clients
with resources and supports
and those really,
critical components
that allow themto become more stable,
to return to the community.
(02:04):
You know,I like to say we're creating good neighbors.
whereasin the past, it was
really just all
about compliance.
Right.
Monitoring for terms
and conditions of probation.
It's court ordered. Right.
So it used to be very
much compliance driven.
And now I saywe're more compassionate.
We look for how we can,
you know, support our clients
where they're at,
in their life,
with what they need,
(02:26):
and really provide those,
those resources and connections
to both public sector,
you know, services
that serve social safety
net as well as employment
and education and,
you know,kind of run the gamut of what we can do
for our clients.
You touched on something that,
you know, when I've seen how,
those kind of services
(02:47):
are portrayed
on movies and television,
you know,you have characters
who are saying,
hey, I,
you know,I have to call my parole officer.
can you explain the difference
between probation and parole?
So I guess in the
simplest form,
we are a county agency,
and it is different
state by state.
So in in California,
(03:08):
probation is, a local agency.
It's run by counties, right?
And parole is a state agency.
It's run by the Department
of Corrections
and Rehabilitation.
And so
kind of the
easiest way to explain
it would be people on parole
have gone to state prison,
and then they've come out
and they've served
the remaining part
of their sentence on parole.
(03:29):
Some for,
you know, life
very long periods of time.
some of the more violent,
like, sexually
violent predators,
for instance, are on
are on a state parole,
versus our clients
who are on probation terms.
How many clients
are you serving at one time?
You know, atany given time, around
3500 with juveniles and adults.
But that includes
clients on warrant,
bank on warrant status
(03:50):
or or on low risk caseloads.
and then the other interesting
dynamic would be
you've got court probation
and then formal probation.
Right.So court probation is a function
of the courtwhere they can put somebody on,
on a term of probation,
if you will.But we don't actually supervisor monitor
those clients.It's simply court probation.
It's sort of like
paperwork probation
(04:10):
if you will.
So we can still
provide resources
and referrals
to those individuals,
but they're not formally
supervised in any way.
You also
mentioned this
your decades in in this field.
How did you grow up and say,
I want to become a chief
probation officer?
How did you get from, you know,
all of your education
and your expertise
(04:31):
and your experience
to Contra Costa County?
What brought you here?
So the first half of my career,
I would say,was in a state prison system.
I worked forthe Indiana Department
of Correctionsas an administrator,
running juvenile facilities,
and in many cases,
closing juvenile facilities.
but but,
the bulk of my time back then
was, was with,
incarcerated young people.
(04:53):
and then I came to California
in 2011 to the Alameda County
Probation Department,
where I was, deputy chief
and then an assistant chief,
and initially started
working institutions.
And it was so unique
that California system
is just enough different
from Indiana system
that it was a really,
like, seamless transition
from running institutions
(05:13):
to then kind of growing
and evolving my career as well,
into that assistant chief role.
And then here to Contra
Costa in 2020 as the chief.
And and when you
bring into the fold,
the pandemic,
how was that kind of starting
in a new community
in this role?
Yeah, my first day here was the
first day of the pandemic.
oh.
(05:34):
The unique thing
about that, though,
I think, as I mentioned, since
so much of my career prior
to coming to California
was in institutions.
I think thatpositioned us uniquely,
because decompressing
populations was something
that I wasfairly comfortable with.
and just recognizing that,
you know,
our staff weren't the only ones
(05:54):
in a potentially feeling
like the crisis of this, right?
our clients were feeling
very uncertain.
and certainlythe parents of the young people
who we had
in our juvenile hall.
And at the time, we
we operated
a ranch in Byron
called the Warren Allen Youth
Rehabilitation Facility.
I could only imagine
what those parents
were feeling
with the uncertainties
(06:16):
and, you know,
all of the things
we were hearing about
the terrible outcomes
in prisons and in congregate
care environments.
so I really wanted to,
kind of be responsive
and proactive
in addressingsome of those concerns
of our clients
and of our clients
family members.
And then, of course,
(06:37):
we had to takeinto consideration, you know, public safety
and do what was best
for the community,
and not just from a,
you know,
criminal activity standpoint,
but also from, you know,
what will really
what what we could do
to strengthen the community
in this time of uncertainty
and crisis, as I've said.
so I think we were in
a good position.
We very rapidly
depopulated our,
our camp environment
(06:58):
and to the best of our ability,
our juvenile hall.
I worked very closely
with our system partners here,
as well as our partners
just at the state level.
and so I think, you know,
I think we did,
we did a really good job
in this county
responding to it,
but I think that our department
also did a great job
really seeing themselves as
essential service workers.
to some degree, I had to
(07:18):
kind of work
to get my staff
to not come into the office.
I know,
I know,you heard, like, these horror
stories of people
not being ableto get their staff
back into the office.
And I was like,I did not have that problem.
Sometimes I had to say,
we got too many people here,
but but,
my team did a great job.
They jumpedin, and really,
really rose to the challenge.
How big is your team
(07:38):
and is everyone sworn? No.
So we are budgeted
at just under 400.
we've got about,
90 some odd vacancies right now
across the board with sworn
and non sworn staff.
and as I said,
we have both sworn.
So those who are,
you know,
peace officers,
(07:59):
if you will, both
to our institutional officers,
deputy probation officers
and then a variety of
supervisors and above.
And then we have a civilian
civilian staff.
So we've got an amazing team
of administrative
support personnel.
We've got an information
technology division.
we've got anentire fiscal team.
and I saywe cannot do the work
as sworn individuals
(08:20):
without our
non sworn counterparts
because that is so important,
our analytical staff
and and our human
resources staff.
and I would say, you know,
from a,from a numbers standpoint,
it's probably half
and half somewhere
close to that. Okay.
It's not like your team has
(08:41):
sworn officers
who are arresting
people regularly.
I canyou talk about how that works?
So we we arrest
we have arrest authority,
if you will.We have powers of arrest.
but it's limited
in our jurisdiction,
so it's limited in the scope
to those who are on probation.
Now, I will say,
in conversation with chiefs
from around the state,
(09:01):
some smaller departments,
some smaller counties,
their county councils
have opined that
their authority
may be a bit broader than,
I wouldnecessarily feel comfortable
with for our department.
We've got great law
enforcement partners
throughout countless county,
so I don't ever envision
a time wherewe would need to absent
some sort of,
you know, emergency,
(09:23):
in which case
we certainly could step in
and help fill that void.
but but traditionally speaking,
our powers of arrest,
we have a limited
jurisdiction to,
you know, effect arrest
on those currently
under probation.
one of the areas that you've
talked about
is funding prevention efforts,
and keeping young people
out of the justice system
completely. How do you do that?
(09:44):
You mentionedsome system partners.
Who are they
and how dohow does that all fit together?
So we receive what's called JJ,
CPA or Juvenile Justice Crime
Prevention Act dollars
from the state.
passed through
from the federal government.
But a portion of those dollars
locally,we have committed to prevention
efforts, primary,
(10:05):
secondary and tertiary.
So primary would be,
you know,we want to put services
and programs in place
that would ideally
completely divert
that young person from ever
entering into our system,
versus
those who may have
had a light touch
with the systemand were able to jump in
and kind of disrupt
any sort of further,
further trajectory
(10:26):
into our system.
and so we've we've done
a lot ofreally intentional work
locally funding
educational programing,
mentoring, programing,
services in the community,
recreational opportunities
and things of that nature.
in an effort to really
keep the kids busy,
you know,give the kids opportunities,
give the families, resources
(10:47):
to turn to
when they are feeling
kind of at their, you know,
wits end.
whereas, you know,
a decade ago,
a parent may have called
a probation officer
or the school wife called,
you know, the police.
we want to have resources
in the communitywhere we are not.
And law enforcement
is not the first,
industry or entity
that a family or a school
feels like they need
to reach out to.
(11:09):
some of the the,
goals that you've talked
about over the past year
and in looking into the future
of, of probation
and what you're tryingto accomplish there.
First of all, let's talk about
what are you trying
to accomplish.
And andI'd like to touch a little bit
on kind ofsome of the efforts
that you're investing in
in terms of community
outreach and engagement.
And then Isaiah's role.
Yeah.Senate Bill 823 was passed
(11:30):
a few years ago,
and that effectively
closed the Division
of Juvenile Justice
and realigned that population
of what wouldtraditionally be known
as more serious
or violent juvenile
offenders back to the county.
so the county was faced
with creating a program
to really address
the needsof those young people.
And I think we've done
a really great job
because we wereuniquely positioned in that.
We already had some post
(11:51):
dispositional programing
in our facility
that met those needs.
but as I've shared,
you know, very publicly,
we didn't have a lot of time
to plan that.
And across the state,
I think we would all agree that
it's under-resourced
financially,
but also the space
that we were expected
to usefor those young people really isn't ideal for a long
(12:12):
or longer term commitment.
So we're looking at
keeping kids
like upwardsof seven years potentially.
and that's a long time to be in
what was,
you know, designed
and constructed as a short term
juvenile hall detention space.
So we've really tried
to do our best to reimagine
the space that we have.
We recently opened
a multisensory
de-escalation room
in our juvenile hall,
(12:33):
in an effort
just to give the kids
an opportunity to really.
Yeah.
tap into other
cognitive resources
when they're feeling kind
of, like, overstimulated,
or dysregulated emotionally.
But we're going
to be demolishing
our old juvenile hall soon,
which has
been sitting vacant
for very long time.
(12:54):
and ideally, then,
you know,we'll be able to start
to reimagine
in what
a more effective space
for programing
looks likefor these young people.
I was very fortunate
to get the board's support
to turn,
House, which has
now been used
as office space, back
into a residential building,
for this population,
(13:15):
as they have completed
a significant enough,
amount of their programing
and can be court ordered
into a lessrestrictive program.
So we're going to be beginning
the renovation of that location
so that we've got
a more normalized home
like environment
for those young people.
but that's been a big
priority of ours,
is getting this
program launched,
successfully and then trying to
(13:36):
kind of really reimagine
what the space looks like
for these young people.
another priority of ours
is around our transition
age youth population
and really making sure
that we're,
acknowledging adolescent
brain development science
and how we supervise and,
and kind of refer
these young people
for programs and services,
acknowledging that
while many of them
(13:57):
are on adult,
court orders for probation,
anyone who has a transition age
young person could easily say
that while they
might be over 18,
like they still need
that extra support
that a young person
on a juvenile caseload
would probably have.
So we've
we've put a transition age
youth service network in place
in partnership with one of our,
community based organizations
(14:17):
that will serve as like a one
stop shop for referrals,
which just takes the guesswork
out of it for my staff.
And it also helps
take some of the confusion
and frustration out
of it for our kiddos.
when you think about
it, kindof some of the key initiatives
and projects for,
probation, you know,
investing in community outreach
has been one of them
that you've talked
about pretty frequently.
(14:39):
in with the onboarding
of of Isaiah
and having kindof a storyteller on board.
what are you hoping
to accomplish?
So I think probation
as an industrydoes a lot of things well,
but we don't necessarily
talk about ourselves very well.
And so much,
like many people,don't understand the difference
between probation and parole.
I think part of that
we have to take ownership for,
(15:00):
because we don't really talk
about the good work that we do.
We don't wantto tokenize our clients
and parade them around
in front of people.
but with that said,
we also have to get
our story out there.
And if we don'ttell our story correctly,
someone elseis going to tell it incorrectly.
And so it was really
important for me to have,
a dedicated staff person on
(15:21):
board
who would get to
really learn probation
and be able to,
you know, kind of brag about us
in a way that,
is effective and creates
the narrative that we want to
in the community,
but also can respond
when we don't get it right.
Right.Because they're obviously human
behavior, right?They're going to be times
where something does happen
that we also need to make sure
(15:41):
we're messaging that correctly
so that the public realizes
how committed
we are to transparency
and really getting
the message out there
so that we don't have
any other
unintentional misinformation
circulating.
Isaiah,how long have you been with
the county now?
is four going on
five months now 4 or 5 months?
Yeah.And how much have you learned
about probation?
(16:02):
What's what's been surprising?
What's been challenging?
I've learned so much
about probation.
There's so many passionate
peopleended up in the department,
you know, so many passionate
and experienced people
that I just love to go to
and just kind of
just be a sponge and,
you know, get that history
so I can better,
you know, tailor
our messages and,
(16:22):
you know,or just focus on little nuances
that people may not know about.
so it's been it's been
very exciting work for me,
connectingwith all of our stakeholders,
you know, being a community,
council members, our staff,
it's just it's exciting work,
you know,and folks are passionate and,
you know, I'mjust excited for the future.
(16:43):
And I knowwe've been seeing
a lot of traction
on social media getting,
you know, accounts up to speed.
We've got, Twitter, LinkedIn.
We want to plugsome of those out for sure.
we're CC,
probation
on Facebook, Instagram,
we're on Twitter,
we're on LinkedIn
as well, as well as next door
here that everyone go
follow them. That's right.
(17:05):
And if youand if you don't follow them,
our county accounts
will make sure
that the ones
that we're onthe same platforms will share
that information as well.
That's actually,
one of the things that you've
also talked about, chief, is,
you know, shiftingfrom compliance to compassion.
You touched on thisa little bit more briefly,
but I want to talk about that.
that seems very empathetic
in a fieldthat is strongly connected
(17:25):
to a law enforcement angle.
how do youwhat does that mean, and how do you accomplish that?
So I think some of
this stems from my starts,
you know,on the first day of the pandemic,
and just seeing how effective
it was. Right.
I think our department had done
a great job, part of my arrival
with utilizing incentives
through our core
(17:45):
correctional practices
as our evidence base.
one of our best strategies,
but in in addition
to providing things
as an incentive
to positive behavior,
I also recognize
that oftentimes,
you know, in addition
to their current
legal struggles,
our clients are facing
a host of other challenges,
(18:06):
either financially
with transportation,
with feeding their children,
with providing
for daycare and assistance
and things of that nature.
So it's really important for me
and for my entire team
that we look at how we could,
make reasonable and responsible
investments in things
other than just
what you would traditionally
(18:27):
think ofis as those things
that would be sort
of addressingthose criminal genic factors.
So we've increased
our investment
in housing services.
we're now,
providing gift
cards for grocery stores.
We created a sustainability
fund last year through our
AB 109 realignment account,
and throughsome of our juvenile funding, so that we can meet
those urgent
(18:47):
and immediate
one time
assistance needs that
our clients might have,
and really,in a way, to kind of
break down the barriers.
we started,
mobile transport or,
excuse me,mobile probation services
program with three minivans
or threesprinter vans a few years ago
in partnershipwith the Superior Court
as part of our pretrial
monitoring program.
(19:09):
So the transportation
wouldn't be an issue
for our staffif we could take our
our mobile
units out
and they serve as sort of
standalone work
sites for our staff.
So, you know,
if we have a client
in Bethel Island,
they don't have to try
and get to our Antioch office.
Or ifwe have an unsheltered client,
we don't have to try and,
you know,figure out a way for them
to reasonably get to us.
We can bring
our services to them.
(19:30):
And so it was really important
for methat just to look for
where the hurdles are in place,
that would be preventing
our clients
from from really
being successful
and tryingto create opportunities
and pathways for success
to be more attainable.
if there's,
first of all, that's amazing
because you think
(19:50):
about the number of folks
who are engaging
your services every day
and how one
issue in their life
can change
the trajectory of it.
And the factthat you're really focusing on
how do you rehabilitate someone
and help them
reenter society, following,
you know, whatever their
whatever their issues were?
(20:12):
Well,the term rehabilitate implies
that they were at one point
in time, fully functioning.
Right.And so oftentimes
we're meeting our client
at a port point of,
you know, a militating like,
how do wehow do we create the capacity
within this individual
so that they can grow
in, you know, their
their educational performance,
their civic engagement,
(20:32):
right, their legal compliance.
So oftentimes, you know,
we use the word rehabilitate.
But that's making a
pretty big assumption
about our clients.
And so we really try and
take a step back
and like okayso from a foundational level
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
like what do our clients
need to be successful.
And oftentimes it is, you know,
(20:53):
so shelter services or
referrals to the food bank.
We started, having a,
sort of mini food banks,
if you will, at all
of our offices last year.
Just recognizing
that a lot of our clients
had real food instability,
weren't surehow they were going to feed their families.
And sorather than expecting them
to try and find their way
to a food bank
(21:14):
or, you know, a
shelter for a meal,
we startedkeeping a little host
of non-perishables
at all of our offices,
including our juvenile hall,
so that when families come
to visit their young people,
they can just grab a bag
and fill it upwith as much as they want.
You know,we don't track or monitor
just when our rations get low,
we restock.
But, just little things
like that, recognizing that,
(21:34):
you know,if a client is not
really feeling supported
and doesn't have
those kind of core, needs met,
then complying with their court
order terms, condition
is going to be thelast priority on their mind.
if there's
one takeaway from
the discussion today
about probation,
(21:54):
what do you want folks
to remember the most?
Just what?
And
unique role
we play in the community.
We we really are
focused on client success,
and how that leads
to public safety.
So I think that,
you know, oftentimes
people think that probation
has this dual role
(22:16):
where we are social workers
and law enforcement.
But I like to say that
it's it's not a dual role.
It's a third very unique role.
Right.We connect our clients
to opportunities and resources
that willthen lead them to be ready
and really able to receive the,
programing and guidance
(22:37):
that we can then
give themto be more successful.
Well, thank you so much.
that's it for today's show.
I'm your host,Christy Jordan, Contra Costa
County's publicinformation officer.
Thanks for joining us
on the governmentSpeak Podcast, brought to you
by the Office
of Communications and Media.
Don't just take our word
for it.Stay curious,
stay connected
(22:57):
and stay informed.
Until next time,
keep your mind open
and your facts straight.
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