Last month our speaker was Theresa Adams-Hydar, Asst. Sheriff, Detention Services, for San Diego County. She gave us an overview of how the 7 jail facilities are run and then went into specifics including physical and mental health care, food services, and maintenance. She explained why there were so many changes that were needed once realignment was instituted. Realignment was the State’s decision that moved thousands of inmates from overcrowded prisons to the local county jails. It brought in inmates from prisons who had long sentences rather than typical jail inmates who were often there just awaiting trial or in for sentences of one year or less. The needs and behaviors of those people have required that the jail change many of their policies to accommodate more serious offenders. They have started providing more training for jobs outside of jail, such as culinary skills
She was also proud to share that last year the jail deaths went from 20 in 2022 to 13 in 2023. They hope to keep decreasing those numbers but are understaffed which makes it more difficult.
In February our topic will be to look at the implementation of the Racial Justice Act in San Diego County. We are hoping to have a speaker from the ACLU to help us learn more about this and see if there are aspects where we could help make the RJA effective in San Diego.
In the future we plan to look at how Restorative Justice is being implemented in local schools. There seems to be a backlash about it but we fear it is due to a lack of proper training.