Issue | Background | Findings | Conclusions | Recommendations | Responses | Attachments

Summary of
San Mateo County Detention Facilities
Issue
What are the current conditions of the San Mateo County detention facilities?

Summary
The California Penal Code §919(b) mandates that the San Mateo County Civil Grand
Jury (Grand Jury) inquire into the condition and management of public detention
facilities within the County.
The Grand Jury inspected and investigated all five county detention facilities:
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The Maguire Correctional Facility (men’s jail)
The Women’s Correctional Center
Hillcrest Juvenile Hall
Camp Glenwood (juvenile honor camp)
The Youth Services Center (the new juvenile detention facility which is under
construction)

The Probation Department manages all juvenile detention facilities and is responsible for
the construction of the new Youth Services Center. Juvenile offenders have a large array
of services to assist them in socialization. These programs are aimed at reducing the
incidence and impact of delinquency and crime.
All detention facilities have trained dedicated staffs. All facilities are well managed and
well run.
The Maguire Correctional Facility and the Women’s Correctional Center are consistently
overcrowded. The County should relieve this overcrowding as quickly as possible.

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The Women’s Correctional Center is substandard and does not serve the female inmate
population to the same standard as the Maguire Correctional Facility serves the male
population. The Women’s Correctional Center facility must be replaced.

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San Mateo County Detention Facilities
Issue
What are the current conditions of the San Mateo County detention facilities?

Background
The California Penal Code §919(b) mandates that the San Mateo County Civil Grand
Jury (Grand Jury) inquire into the condition and management of public detention
facilities within the County.
An excellent physical description of the County’s detention facilities is in the San Mateo
Jails portion of the 2004-2005 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury Report and will not
be repeated here.1

Investigation
The Grand Jury toured and inspected the following facilities:
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The Maguire Correctional Facility (men’s jail)
The Women’s Correctional Center
Hillcrest Juvenile Hall
Camp Glenwood (juvenile honor camp)
The Youth Services Center (the new juvenile detention facility which is under
construction)

During these facility tours, the respective staffs briefed the Grand Jury. In addition, the
Grand Jury received written information, interviewed members of the Sheriff and
Probation Departments, inmates, incarcerated minors, and members of the Service
League of San Mateo County.
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The 2004-2005 Grand Jury report on San Mateo County Jails will be found at:
http://www.sanmateocourt.org/grandjury//2004/reports/Jailsvisit_31_final.pdf

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Two Grand Jurors attended a biannual San Mateo County Sheriff’s Stakeholders’
Meeting. Individuals with professional interest in the Sheriff’s Department and the
management of the jails attended this meeting.

Findings
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The Maguire Correctional Facility is a modern, well-managed detention facility
for men who are incarcerated for less than a year, awaiting trial, going to trial, or
sentenced to State incarceration and awaiting transportation to another facility.
The California Board of Corrections has rated the Maguire Correctional Facility
capacity to be 688 inmates. From August 2005 through April 2006, the inmate
population ranged from 883 to 950. The population consistently exceeds the rated
capacity.

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The Women’s Correctional Center houses female inmates and minimum-securityrisk males. It also is home to two alternative custody programs: the Sheriff’s
Work Program (male only), and the Electronic Monitoring Program for low-risk
inmates. It is a Board of Corrections Type II facility with a capacity rating of 84
inmates. The inmate population from July 2004 through March 2006 ranged from
90 to 149

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The women’s facility does not provide the female inmate population with the
same standard of service as the Maguire Correctional Facility provides for the
male population. The Women’s Correctional Center has a number of deficiencies
including the following:
o There are no accommodations for female inmates with serious mental-health
issues; they must be housed in the Maguire facility.
o Lack of separate classroom/service areas.
o Inadequate visiting facilities: one public visiting room for each 24 inmates
in the men’s facility and one for each 65 inmates in the women’s facility;
one attorney visiting room for each 96 inmates in the men’s facility and one
for each 130 inmates in the women’s facility.
o There are no accommodations for mother-child contact visits.
o Two dorms in the women’s jail are open-bay type, housing 66 inmates (26
in one, 40 in the other). Due to the open-bay style, only inmates of “like
classification;” i.e., either sentenced or un-sentenced, may be housed
together. This hampers flexibility in dealing with the inmates: they cannot
selectively be allowed out of their dorms either to keep hostile parties apart
or to conduct inmate programs in a dedicated program room. The pod-type
design of the Maguire Correctional Facility is superior in all respects.

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The San Mateo County Probation Department is responsible for supervision and
monitoring of youthful offenders and for prevention/intervention services to

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families and youth not yet under the Court’s jurisdiction.2 The State of California
requires that incarcerated youth be provided “Social Awareness Programs” with
the goal of reducing recidivism.3 This programming (education) is administered
by the county probation department or the county board of education; however,
there is no standard for the total number of these types of mandated classes. Most
counties do not emphasize rehabilitative education to the extent that the San
Mateo County Probation Department does. Many counties rely on the board of
education only to meet this requirement by blending this instruction into social
studies classes. The philosophy of the San Mateo Probation Department is that
locking up juvenile offenders for punishment and meeting only minimum
standards for housing and supervision is not beneficial for staff, the juveniles, or
the community. The Probation Department believes that their model of intensive
social programming reduces violence (and other problems) in the institutions. The
available programs and services include:
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Furlough program
Drug/alcohol substance-abuse education
Mental health—individual and group
Second Chance Education specifically designed for those juveniles heavily
involved with gangs
Life Skills—teaches the skills necessary for functioning in society,
especially those required to find and maintain a job
Parenting skills
Weekend Work Program
Sports League to foster teamwork and good sportsmanship
Anger Management
Cognitive Skills—how to make rational, positive life choices
Conflict Management and Resolution
A transition program to aid in developing goals
Furlough/Aftercare—provides more intense monitoring to the minors
immediately upon their release. The Probation Department states that this is
particularly important since recidivism is most likely to occur during the
first 60-90 days after release.

Camp Glenwood is a minimum-security “honor camp” for male juvenile
offenders at risk for repeated offences. It is well managed and well run. A wide
range of effective programs and services is available, all directed to help the
juvenile offender take responsibility for his actions and furnish him with
academic and life-skills education. The ultimate purpose is to assist in the
resocialization of the offender and thus reduce the incidence and impact of
delinquency and crime.

Taken from the Probation Department’s Mission Statement. Select the “Probation” menu item on San
Mateo County’s website: http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/
Section 1378 of the State of California Title 15 Regulations for Juvenile Hall Operation.

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Hillcrest Juvenile Hall is old and barely serviceable. The County plans to transfer
all juvenile detention services to the new Youth Services Center in September
2006 and to raze the Hillcrest facility in January 2007.

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The Youth Services Center is under construction. The San Mateo Probation
Department expects it to be completed on time (September 15, 2006) and within
budget. The Center will include a new 180-bed juvenile hall to replace Hillcrest
Juvenile Hall, a 30-bed girl’s ranch (an honor camp, the female equivalent of
Camp Glenwood), a 24-bed group home, probation offices, courts, and mental
health offices. This new facility will place San Mateo County in compliance with
the California State Board of Corrections regulations for the care of children in
detention.

Conclusions
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The Maguire Correctional Facility is well managed and well run, but is
consistently overcrowded.

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The Women’s Correctional Facility is well managed and well run, but the
physical plant is a crowded disgrace and must be replaced.

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The San Mateo County Probation Department provides many extremely valuable
services to our community by effectively managing, educating and socializing
juvenile offenders instead of only incarcerating them.

Recommendations
1. The Board of Supervisors should move as quickly as possible to fund and build a
new Women’s Correctional Center.
2. The Sheriff of San Mateo County should move as quickly as possible to do
everything within his jurisdiction to relieve overcrowding in both the Maguire
Correctional Facility and the Women’s Correctional Center.

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