COUNTY EXPLORES ALTERNATIVES TO JAIL
Regional agency seeks input on policies to lower incarceration levels; Los Angeles initiative is seen as a model
If Dion Caporrimo had not looked over at the right time, he might have missed the flyer posted on the wall of a San Diego County lockup mentioning housing services for people getting out of jail.
“I had to reach out and ask for (services),” he said, adding that housing is an essential component in keeping justice-involved people out of jail.
“The longer someone stays out homeless, the more possibilities to commit crimes,” he said.
Caporrimo spoke at a Jan. 31 meeting, one of two “listening sessions” hosted by the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, seeking input on where the county is falling short on alternatives to incarceration. It was part of a larger effort, called Safety Through Services, proposed in October 2021 by county Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer.
The county needs to stop using its jails “as a first-line response to dealing with so many of our social challenges and social ills,” such as drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness, Lawson-Remer said when she introduced the proposal.
SANDAG, the regional planning agency, which has a criminal-justice research arm, was hired by the county to pull together a study — which is scheduled to go before the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 28 — that has four key objectives:
• Analyze how COVID-19 reduced San Diego’s jail population and whether the reductions impacted public safety;
• Examine policy changes that would permanently reduce San Diego’s jail population;
• Develop recommendations to expand access to jail alternatives for people deemed not to be a public-safety risk;
• Look at whether cost savings can be achieved by placing people into services instead of jail.
Since the start of the pandemic, San Diego’s jail population has remained at historic lows due to measures like early releases and changes to booking criteria aimed at reducing the number of incarcerated people. In the months leading up to the pandemic, roughly 5,600 people were