Downtown Accountability Program

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Santa Cruz, a small coastal city of 62,000 residents, has long grappled with persistent drug and alcohol abuse-fueled petty crimes in its downtown area. The community’s sense of safety and economic prosperity are adversely impacted by this cycle of recidivism and many consider the local criminal justice system to be a revolving door for low-level criminals. County-wide law enforcement, health, social service and criminal justice resources expended on repeat offenders are enormous. The cycle of low-level recidivism places a heavy drain on the County jail. A County-initiated report entitled Justice Reinvestment in Santa Cruz, CA: JRI Phase 1 Final Report found that approximately 40% of jail bookings from 2007-2010 were local ordinance (including public drunkenness) and drug use/possession violations, representing an average of 340,000 jail bed days per year. This offender demographic significantly impacts health and social service providers through ambulance and emergency room visits, and County mental health and non-profit assistance. Despite this outlay of public resources, the problem persists. Launched in April 2014, the Downtown Accountability Program (DAP) focuses coordinated resources to reduce recidivism among chronic offenders in the downtown Santa Cruz area. This adaptive and countywide collaborative program offers wraparound services to chronic offenders, on a voluntary basis, in exchange for accountability for their actions. DAP consists of a multidisciplinary, multiagency team with a shared passion for meeting the objectives of the program. Cross-agency coordination is one of the hallmarks of the program, with all partners working in concert to manage recidivism and greatly improve offender stability and health. The team includes the County District Attorney’s Office, Probation Department and Health Services Agency; City Attorney’s Office, City Manager’s Office and Police Department; Santa Cruz Homeless Services Center and Encompass Community Services. Recidivism rates for DAP-intervened clients were greatly reduced in the first eight months of the program. During that period, 60 clients were managed by the DAP team. Those clients' arrest and citation rates both dropped 70% compared to the six months previous to DAP intervention. Ambulance runs to the local ER dropped 80%. Jail booking and bed-days dropped 60% and 40% respectively.