The county Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday in favor of a motion banning the use of all chemical agents, including pepper spray, in youth detention centers, and renewing its contract with Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators with some updated provisions.
The motion by Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe requires the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators to share its findings with the board and a new subcommittee, reduce reliance on solitary confinement and mandate trauma-informed de-escalation training for probation officers working with youth.
The board directed the chief probation officer, working with the council and other advocates, to report back within 60 days with a plan to phase out the use of pepper spray, also known as oleoresin capsicum, in all county juvenile facilities within two years.
According to a statement from Montgomery Steppe’s office, the board’s vote “comes amid heightened concerns directly from community members about patterns of excessive force and the use of chemical agents, including (OC) spray” and a civil rights investigation by California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Montgomery Steppe said the county “cannot allow outdated, overly punitive models of youth detention to persist unchecked.”
“This is about protecting our young people, holding systems accountable, and aligning our policies with what we know works,” she added.
Montgomery Steppe said she was spurred by ongoing investigations that have “highlighted systemic concerns within county detention facilities, including the excessive use of chemical agents on youth, limited investigatory authority in cases of in-custody deaths and an overall lack of meaningful public oversight,” a statement from her office read.
“We need to do something,” Montgomery Steppe said before Tuesday’s vote. “This is a reasonable approach.”
During public comment, supervisors heard from parents with children who either are or were incarcerated, and those representing law enforcement. One man who said his son had been arrested in connection with a family crisis and received no rehabilitation services.
“It was confinement, it was control, it was punishment,” he added.
Jennifer Fox, president of San Diego County Probation Officers Association, the union representing probation officers, asked that the focus be on reducing pepper spray use, but not eliminating it.
The spray is a last-resort tool, used only after other methods fail, Fox said.
“Lasting change requires more than just eliminating a tool” including training, adequate staffing and meaningful programs for youth, Fox said.
Supervisor Jim Desmond said he couldn’t support the proposal, citing safety concerns and certain procedural matters.
Desmond suggested that rather than an ad-hoc committee, reforms should be discussed in an open subcommittee in line with the Brown Act.
Problems should be directed to the chief probation officer to solve, as a first step, Desmond said.
Desmond also said he agreed with reducing, but not ending, the use of pepper spray during contentious law enforcement situations, and that incarcerated youth need more help.
In related matters, a proposed update to expand the investigatory authority of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board was continued until next month, following a response from Sheriff Kelly Martinez, according to Montgomery Steppe’s office.
According to a Sunday report in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Martinez is asking supervisors “to consider a new model of jail oversight: hiring a third-party expert to oversee the doctors, nurses and mental health providers who staff San Diego’s seven jails.”
The Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board is restricted to sworn police officers, and Montgomery Steppe said that allows many with positions of power to be relatively unaccountable for their actions.
She also emphasized that these proposals, and her term in office, will be geared toward other solutions to crime other than incarceration, including social solutions and diversionary programs.
City News Service contributed to this article.
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