Avoiding the use of force by Denver sheriff’s deputies, recognizing and knowing how to treat mental problems among people deputies contact, and handling a growing jail inmate population are among issues Sheriff Patrick Firman highlighted in an end-of-year letter to Denver City Council.

Dated Monday, Dec. 12, the letter also noted the hiring of 200 new deputies this year, an administrative restructuring and newly required training, among other areas:

Dear City Council Member,

USE OF FORCE

DSD’s new use of force policy emphasizes the need for deputies to deescalate situations as an alternative to using force, when reasonably possible. That is, the policy describes what deputies should do in a potential use of force situation, not just what they can do legally.

While force is sometimes necessary in a custodial setting, excessive force is never justified and DSD takes accusations of excessive or unwarranted force very seriously.

MENTAL HEALTH

Approximately 25 percent of DSD’s inmate population is receiving services from mental health professionals and/or taking psychotropic medication. All inmates are screened for mental illness. Denver Health psychiatrists, psychologists, nurse practitioners and psych nurses provide extensive mental health services to inmates in Denver’s jails. In addition, DSD’s transition unit at the County Jail provides intense wraparound services to mentally ill inmates.

Our new use of force policy emphasizes the need for deputies to deescalate situations as an alternative to using force. All DSD deputies are now required to go through deescalation Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). We are on track to have 100 percent of our deputies hired before 2016 certified in CIT by the end of 2016. All deputies hired during 2016 will go through the certification in 2017 before the end of their probation. We will continue training in deescalation and mental health awareness in 2017 through the use of mental health first aid as a refresher to CIT.

INMATE POPULATION

As you know, we have had a challenging year as it relates to managing a high inmate population. Inmate population numbers vary greatly for a variety of different reasons. Denver has experienced significant population growth, and we’ve seen an increase in felony arrests as a result.

While the Denver Sheriff’s Department can’t control who is arrested and brought into our custody, I believe that we play a significant role in providing facts to stakeholders to help understand who is in custody and why they are in custody. This is critical as we engage with others to ensure that only those that absolutely need to be incarcerated remain in custody. To divert those who don’t need to remain incarcerated away from jail, the Denver Sheriff’s Department is working collaboratively with the courts and other city agencies to find alternatives for people facing less serious charges and people battling drug addiction.

The DSD has worked with Denver County Court to increase the use of personal recognizance bonds for people charged with low-level offenses who don’t have a history of missing court dates. The DSD no longer holds persons for other jurisdictions for any longer than needed, and does not hold people on civil immigration matters for ICE.

The department is also working to expand jail diversion programs, such as sheriff home detention, which monitors people serving sentences at home, and the new MAT program, which starts drug addicted inmates on methadone in jail and then releases them to treatment.

Denver is also home to initiatives such as sobriety court, drug court, recovery court and the SMART pre-trials demonstration initiative, which are all designed to divert people from jail. With these programs, the courts have helped us avoid critical overcrowding and we continue to work toward expanding their impact.

For those who need to be incarcerated, we want to provide quality programming to cut recidivism including the RISE (Recovery In a Secure Environment), the alternative sentencing program, the life skills program, GED courses and even GED testing, provided at DSD’s new computer lab.The Denver Sheriff’s Department is in the process of completing the build out of a new women’s housing area in the county jail which will not only add beds for female inmates, but will be state of the art as it relates to gender specific and trauma informed treatment.

STAFFING

Along with a new use of force policy and training in de-escalation, staffing has been one of the most critical areas of focus for the Denver Sheriff’s Department this past year. We have worked hard to substantially increase the number of deputies working the floors, cutting down on officer fatigue.

Earlier this year some 80 recruits – the biggest class in DSD’s history – graduated from the training academy. Since then, another class of 66 has graduated the academy and a class of 52 is currently being trained. In total this year, we have hired just over 200 new deputies, seven civilians and six security specialists.

Following feedback about perceived favoritism and as part of the reform process, we have introduced a new way to promote deputies to the ranks of sergeant and captain, ensuring the process is transparent and impartial. Testing is conducted by an outside organization and concentrates on leadership skills, rather than memorization of departmental policy.

We have also developed and implemented a new “certification” program for newly promoted sergeants, which gives them the training and tools they need to be successful. This is in addition to two weeks of leadership training they get at the academy.

OPERATIONS AND SECURITY

In January, I announced a major restructure of the department, which is now organized around two divisions, operations and administration, reflecting the two main functions of the department, headed by Chief Paul Oliva (operations) and Chief Connie Coyle (administration.)

As part of the restructure, the DSD created a new inmate management unit which oversees policy and procedure regarding inmate grievances, inmate programming and inmate classification. Classification of inmates has been centralized to cover both jails with gang affiliation now factored in.

DSD has created the new position of chief of staff and hired Andrea Albo, who served at the city’s Department of Human Services as the deputy executive director of assistance, providing leadership to the department’s division directors, managing 600 staff and multiple programs and budgets.

The DSD has actively moved to transfer positions which were staffed by deputies, including positions in the records unit, accreditation, fleet management and investigators in internal affairs, to civilian positions.

The DSD increased its K-9 unit from three to six dogs, purchasing three new drug detection dogs. The dogs – two Malinois and one German Shepherd – recently arrived from Europe and are also being trained to detect cell phones. The dogs are part of a security crackdown, new contraband signage and appointment of a dedicated security captain.

WELLNESS AND EARLY OUTREACH

The DSD hired a new wellness coordinator tasked with designing, promoting and implementing wellness programs for staff, which will cover diet, fitness, understanding correctional fatigue and emotional and financial well-being.

The wellness coordinator has promoted staff well-being by presenting to all deputies at in-service training, providing them with information about services, conducting rounds of the DSD facilities, offering personal training and diet plans, administering fitness tests, arranging for social workers and physical therapists to attend DSD facilities and encouraging staff to take part in wellness incentive programs through their health insurers.

The DSD has created an early outreach program to proactively reach out to staff who might be experiencing personal problems. Staff are referred by supervisors and peers and offered services including, but not limited to, counseling and financial planning. The program, commanded by a captain and staffed by an analyst, is collecting data and refining its practices to offer the best help to staff possible.

TECHNOLOGY

Modernizing the DSD’s computer systems, improving the collection and analysis of data, will make the DSD more efficient and allow for evidence-based decision-making. A new data science unit has been established and will be responsible for collecting and analyzing data on jail trends.

Telestaff, an electronic roster scheduling system already being used by (Denver Police Department and Denver Fire Department), was implemented this year and replaces the old paper-based system. The new system has freed up sergeants from having to constantly be looking for people to fill posts, allowing them to spend more time on the floor.

PowerDMS, a computerized document management system that catalogs DSD’s policies and procedures, is now working and promotes greater accountability among staff. Every time a policy is written or updated, staff are electronically prompted to sign off that they have read and understood the policy change.

REFORM UPDATES

We’ve received feedback from community groups about how we can better provide updates regarding our progress on specific reform items. Currently, reform recommendations are posted on the mayor’s website. We are in the process of developing additional information to post which will help the public better understand where we are in implementing all the reform recommendations. We hope to have this ready for publication just after the New Year.

Thank you again for all of your support throughout this process. We’ve gotten a lot of critical work completed this year and have laid the necessary groundwork to continue moving in a positive direction in 2017.