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Hall, Jennifer From: Daisy Ramirez <DRamirez@aclusocal.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2023 7:02 PM To: eComment Subject: Public Comment re Intoxication Detention and Service Offering Policy Good afternoon, My name is Daisy Ramirez, and I am a senior policy advocate and organizer at ACLU of Southern California. My work includes examining conditions of confinement in the Orange County jail system and advocating with people in custody and their loved ones. I am writing to comment on the dangerous and regressive "Intoxication Detention and Service Offering Policy" that was introduced during the Santa Ana City Council Meeting on July 181n Criminalizing poverty, houselessness and healthcare issues is morally wrong, violent, harmful, and always ineffective. Experience and litigation have demonstrated that municipalities cannot target, arrest and jail unhoused people and people experiencing substance use needs as a remedy or way out of the unmet housing and behavioral health needs of Santa Ana residents. According to data from the Board of State and Community Corrections, nearly 50% of people in the Orange County jail system have an open mental health case, approximately 30% are receiving psychotropic medication, 70% are detained pre -trial —most too poor to afford bail, and 1 in 5 people behind bars are unhoused. Data obtained by Million Dollars Hoods, a research team at UCLA, reveals that although, respectively, Latinx and Black people make up 34.1% and 1.6% of the Orange County population, they represented 46.5% and 6.7% of Orange County Jail bookings between 2010 and 2018, indicating significant racial disparities. During the same time, the top three charges against people in OC jails were DUI, drug possession and probation supervision violations. Santa Ana was the top home city for those booked into an OC jail, accounting for 13% of the county jail population. Poor people, Black and brown people, and people with mental health and substance use needs are suffering in Santa Ana and countywide. Criminalizing substance use is a failed and retrograde policy that is both immoral and ineffective. It has only served to expand our bloated carceral system, wage war on poor people and communities of color, and stigmatize substance use as a personal failure. It is time to end the culture of disposability and treat substance use as the public health issue that it is. We cannot continue to throw money at police and jails and expect a different outcome. I strongly support the recommendation for the city to invest in housing and care —not jail and one-way tickets out of town. We demand humane and effective policies —not police and jails. Thank you, Daisy Ramirez, MSW Senior Policy Advocate & Organizer ACLU of Southern California (o) 714-450-3964 x102 dramir z(clas¢acI.p_rg Pronouns: She/Her/Hers website I f c 5bool