A report showcasing interventions both inside and outside of the justice system to improve health and well-being of Riverside County residents —also including a budget analysis of Riverside County “public protection” spending.
Introduction
We all want to live in safe communities.
Across California, policymakers and voters are realizing that to nurture safe communities we need to invest in evidence-based interventions that prevent crime.
Research shows that the correlation between crime rates and the number of people who are incarcerated is weak, and using incarceration to deter crime has diminishing returns. When people are exposed to jail and prison, it only increases recidivism — meaning more crime and then more imprisonment. Further, incarceration and hyper-criminalization have negative impacts on individual and community well-being.
As this has become more and more evident, California voters and policymakers are reducing reliance on harsh punishment — including rolling back the Three Strikes law and approving Proposition 47 in 2014 and Propositions 57 and 64 in 2016 — and shifting more dollars and authority to California counties.
We all want to live in healthy communities.
One’s home, job, education, unity with one’s family and community, health insurance, and ability to participate in society all contribute to good health. These social and environmental contexts are called social determinants of health because they affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.
Research shows that involvement in the criminal justice system is also a social determinant of health. Things like living in a community that is under heavy surveillance by the police or trying to reenter and lead a successful life after being incarcerated lead to poor health for the individual and their family, and negatively affect the whole community.
Yet people in low-income communities and communities of color start with the deck stacked against them.
Long before any individual decision is made to participate in behaviors that are deemed illegal, people in low-income communities and communities of color have barriers to getting jobs that pay well and finding housing they can afford. People in these communities are more likely to be stopped, arrested, convicted, and incarcerated than in white, high-income communities, despite engaging in the same behaviors.
A budget is a moral document. It is where communities define what they believe in.
Riverside County spends about 30% of its annual expenditures — and 75% of its discretionary funding — on public protection, which generally includes probation, police, district attorneys, the sheriff’s department, and other programs (for more information see “Investing in Riverside: Budget Analysis and Current Choices” section).2 Riverside County leaders face important ethical choices in the budgeting process about criminal justice system practices. This year, rather than overspending on incarceration and criminalization, county leaders can invest in programs that improve the health and safety of all Riverside County residents.
Deciding how to use county funds will impact huge numbers of people:
- In 2015–2016 almost 12,800 adults and 2,500 youth were on probation in Riverside County and almost 4,500 people were booked into jails.
- The California Health Care Foundation estimates that about 1 in every 6 Californians has a mental health issue, and about 1 in 20 have a serious mental illness (SMI).
- About 47% of people in Riverside County jails have some kind of mental illness, and about 10% to 15% are considered seriously mentally ill. By comparison, 4.6% of Riverside County adults are considered seriously mentally ill.
- About 2,165 people are homeless in Riverside County on any given night. Of those returning home from jail or prison, 43% to 70% remain unemployed 1 year later.
There is an unprecedented amount of money coming into county systems to intervene with people most affected by the criminal justice system.
AB109 (Public Safety Realignment of 2011) brings millions of dollars to counties each year. AB109 reduced state prison overcrowding by keeping people with low-level offenses at the county level rather than in state prisons. In 2014, voters passed Proposition 47 to reclassify certain felony crimes as misdemeanors. Proposition 47 will also bring additional state funds to counties for treatment and prevention, but Prop 47 funds have not been distributed to counties yet — 2 years after passage.
Those who distribute the money direct the goals.
When a probation or sheriff’s department funds programs and services, they focus on tracking recidivism. Health outcomes — like decreased substance use — and outcomes that determine health and safety (such as the ability to get housing and employment) become secondary, if measured at all. Programs for those involved with or at risk of involvement with the criminal justice system should aim to decrease the risk factors that lead to crime, not just the outcome of crime.
We have an opportunity to prevent crime before it happens, by providing evidence-based treatment to people with a higher risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system.
Many professionals in California and across the United States are creating systems that nurture community safety by keeping people out of jail and prison whenever feasible. This work involves preventing crime long before it happens by creating ways for individuals to succeed, and making those opportunities available to all Californians, no matter their color or income level.
This report highlights Riverside County’s spending on community safety and presents cost-effective alternatives that promote health and safety.
We describe evidence-based practices that help people who are either involved in or at risk of being involved in the criminal justice system stay out.
- Some programs are embedded in the criminal justice system but subcontracted to behavioral health agencies or community-based organizations.
- Some programs operate outside of the criminal justice system.
- Some interventions are one specific part of a more complex program. We shed light on how Riverside County officials are spending funds for the populations at risk of criminal justice involvement.
- Riverside County has implemented some innovative programs through the Behavioral Health and Substance Use Treatment program at Riverside University Health Services, through community organization partners, and through probation and the sheriff’s department.
- At the same time, the County has chosen to build a new jail in Indio, and the largest part of the AB109 budget, at least, continues to be for the sheriff’s department, i.e., incarceration.
- Riverside County residents have signaled, by their voting on ballot initiatives, that they support a change in thinking regarding support for expansion of treatment and services over arrest and incarceration. Elected officials’ budget choices should better align with their constituents.
The County can adopt fair, humane, just, and effective ways to help people stay out of the criminal justice system by focusing on public health principles of harm reduction and preventive interventions. These programs and interventions already exist and are evidence based, and some are already being implemented in Riverside County.
As we continue our work toward a transformative vision of health equity and racial justice, we also continue to shift and evolve our own frameworks, language, and vision — especially with respect to our Health Instead of Punishment work. Because we know that to transform public health, we must be in a continuous process of transformation ourselves. Part of that process means reflecting on past work, and acknowledging shifts in our learning and language. Learn more about the evolution of our analysis and our current framework and thinking here.
This resource is representative of an earlier stage in our journey. The research, data, and learnings here hold strong, but the report may include past frameworks, specifically regarding racial justice and the criminal legal system.
View our latest work and framing here.
