District Attorney data portal leads to policy change

Yolo Commons — the data portal launched by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office in April — has already changed a policy to increase the number of cases diverted out of the criminal justice system.

The DA’s Office announced on June 8 that they will no longer disqualify people from diversion programs due to their criminal history. The office stated that this change should increase diversions from 15 to 20%.

The change in policy will likely benefit Yolo County residents of color due to the fact that law enforcement offices refer more cases to the District Attorney for people of color than for white people, according to a statement from the DA’s Office.

White people make up 71.7% of the Yolo County population, according to the 2019 American Communities Agency. However, they made up only 183, or 38%, of the 484 cases referred to the prosecutor. Hispanic or Latino community members, who make up 32% of the population made up 145 of the arrests or about 30%.

Black people had the largest disparity. Despite only making up about 2.8% of the county population, they made up about 10.5% of defendants referred to the prosecutor’s office with 51 referrals.

“When we really started to dig into it we realized that Black or African Americans were most disparate,” District Attorney Jeff Reisig said during the first Commons town hall meeting on June 8. “And so we started to think about what we can do here at the DA’s Office, you know, we make a decision about whether we charge the case or whether we divert the case.”

Reisig explained that the office did dig into these data points, and realized that the office was charging and diverting cases at a similar rate regardless of race.

“What we really looked into was who is not being even considered for diversion,” Reisig said. “And what we learned from some of the research is that, unfortunately, people of color often come into the system with a history.”

Reisig noted that violent crimes, such as hate crimes and domestic violence cases, will not be diverted along with DUI cases. Additionally, victim input will always be sought when looking at diversion programs.

Diversion programs are those that move cases from traditional prosecution. They include restorative justice, drug court and mental health court.

Reisig’s set goal for Commons is to increase felony diversions to 10% by September of 2022. In January, the District Attorney’s Office diverted 13.54% of felony cases.

Yolo Commons is a partnership between the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, the Yolo County Multi-Cultural Council and the nonprofit Measures for Justice — an organization that seeks to use data to help fix the criminal justice system. Reisig noted that his decision to work on this data program came from being “frustrated about the lack of thorough, accurate data from the criminal justice system.”

“We created Commons so that data transparency is possible for local jurisdictions like Yolo County,” stated Amy Bach, the CEO of Measures for Justice. “When accurate data are made available, local communities are empowered to enact positive changes and introduce new policies that address some of the most important issues, including racial disparity. We are very excited that less than 60 days after the Commons’s launch, we are already seeing a difference.”

Yolo County was the first county to implement the pilot program just two months ago. In May, Measures for Justice, partnered with the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys — a nonprofit that works to “ensure safer and more equitable communities through prosecutorial training” — and Tableau Foundation — a “philanthropic initiative” from the employees of Tableau Software, which encourages using “facts and analytical reasoning to solve the world’s problems — to expand the pilot to 15 additional District Attorney’s Offices, according to a statement from Measures for Justice. The partnership will start with the East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana; Jackson County, Missouri; and Bernalillo County, New Mexico.

The District Attorney’s Office will be hosting monthly town halls on Commons every second Tuesday. Marcus Wiggins, a former district attorney and a former public defender, will be hosting the meetings. The next one will be on July 13 at 6 p.m., with West Sacramento Sacramento Police Chief Rob Strange.