REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
July 16, 2015
FROM: JERRY P. DYER, Chief of Police
Police Department
BY: MICHAEL W. BROGDON, Lieutenant
Police Department
SUBJECT
Title
Authorize the Chief of Police to enter into a five year agreement with the County of Fresno to reserve five bed spaces in the Fresno County Jail for the purpose of housing Fresno Police Department arrestees at a rate of $520.00 per day.
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Council authorize the Chief of Police to enter into a five-year agreement with the County of Fresno to reserve five bed spaces in the Fresno County Jail (FCJ) for the purpose of housing Fresno Police Department (FPD) arrestees at a rate of $520.00 per day.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As a result of early inmate releases prior to arraignment and other court proceedings, the Chief of Police and the County Sheriff developed a written agreement in 2013 to reserve five beds at FCJ to hold FPD arrestees. Since that time, early inmate releases still continue, but on a smaller scale. This improvement is a result of opening additional jail floors and the recent passage of Proposition 47. The current agreement ends on June 30, 2015. The Chief of Police would like to continue this agreement for an additional five years at the same cost of $520.00 per day. This agreement would guarantee that five beds are reserved in FCJ for our repeat offenders who commit crimes while they are out of custody.
BACKGROUND
For the past several years, reductions in jail bed capacity at FCJ have occurred. The factors, as detailed below, operate to significantly limit the number of beds available for arrestees to remain in custody as they move through the criminal justice system. The inability to keep prisoners in custody due to overcrowding at FCJ allows for those individuals to continue committing crimes and puts our community at increased risk of being victimized by these criminals.
The factors that hav...
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