PRESS RELEASE – Sacramento ACT
[Sacramento, CA] June 14, 2016 Local leaders from Sacramento ACT attended the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors hearing on Tuesday, June 14 to continue to press for an audit of the County’s savings from the implementation of Proposition 47 and public presentation of the findings, as well as a public review of the Sheriff’s department contract with with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which brings in $8 million to the County a year but puts immigrant families at risk. On May 26, 500 leaders from Sacramento ACT met to to initiate the call for these public audits and reviews. The meeting generated hundreds of calls to Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan’s office asking for accountability.
Reports recently released by SacACT in collaboration with Building Healthy Communities cited a study by the Public Policy Institute of California which showed that the Sheriff’s Average Daily Population in Sacramento County jails decreased by 508 people over the course of 2015, due to the implementation of Proposition 47 which reclassified a variety of low level crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. According to the report, this translates into a savings of at least $22,992,080 for Sacramento County.
In addition, the reports revealed that Sheriff Jones reserves 165 beds at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center (RCCC) for undocumented detainees, which he must keep filled in order to fulfill the contract with ICE.
“We are calling for transparency from our Board of Supervisors in our county budget process to examine savings from Prop 47 across our justice system so that we can work together to reinvest these savings in our community, in people rather than incarceration,” Dr. Levon Davis, Pastor of Blessed Faith Ministries and clergy leader of Sacramento ACT.
