Chapter 1.5. Joint County Jails of California Penal Code >> Title 4. >> Part 3. >> Chapter 1.5.

This chapter may be cited as the Joint County Jail Act.

Any two or more counties may form a district for the purpose of establishing and operating a joint county jail to serve such counties.

Any district organized under this chapter shall have and exercise the powers expressly granted in this chapter, together with such other powers as are reasonably implied therefrom and necessary and proper to carry out the objects and purposes of this chapter.

The board of supervisors of any county may initiate proceedings proposing the creation of a joint district for the purpose of maintaining a joint county jail under the provisions of this chapter to be composed of two or more counties by the adoption of a resolution reciting the following:
  (1) That it will be beneficial to the public interest to create a joint district for the establishment or operation, or both, of a joint county jail to which persons from any of the counties proposed to be included in the proposed district may be committed.
  (2) The names of the counties proposed to be included in the proposed district which will be benefited by the formation thereof.
  (3) That it is proposed to create a joint district for the establishment or operation, or both, of a joint county jail under the provisions of this chapter for the counties so named.

When adopted, certified copies of the resolution provided for in Section 4053, shall be transmitted to the several clerks of the boards of supervisors in each of the counties named in the resolution other than that in which the proceedings are initiated. Upon the adoption of the resolution provided for in Section 4053, the board of supervisors of the county adopting the same shall name and appoint two members of the board to represent the county upon the board of directors of the joint district proposed to be organized.

Upon receipt of the resolution adopted under Section 4053, the boards of supervisors of the counties affected and to whom the same may be directed shall consider the advisability of creating and organizing a joint district as proposed in said resolution and, upon determining the facts involved therein, shall severally adopt resolutions either rejecting or approving the proposal to create such joint district. Each resolution of approval shall, in addition to the matters otherwise required therein, also name and appoint the members of the board of supervisors of the county adopting the resolution qualified to represent such county upon the board of directors of the proposed joint district. A certified copy of the resolution of approval shall be forthwith transmitted to the clerk of the board of supervisors initiating the proceedings.

The board of supervisors of any county initiating proceedings for the creation of a joint district under this chapter shall, after the receipt of a copy of the resolution approving the proposal to form such district as provided in Section 4055 from the board of supervisors of each county proposed to be included within any such joint district, adopt a resolution declaring the creation and organization of said joint district and setting forth the names of the counties composing said district. A certified copy of the resolution shall be transmitted to and filed with the Secretary of State, whereupon the joint district shall be deemed created and organized and shall exercise all the powers granted in this chapter and shall bear the name and designation of "Joint County Jail District No. _____ of the State of California."

All districts organized under this chapter shall be numbered in the order of their creation, the number to be assigned to said district forthwith upon the organization thereof by the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State shall keep and maintain in his office a list and register showing the joint county jail districts organized under this chapter.

The Secretary of State shall furnish and transmit to the clerk of the board of supervisors of the county adopting the initial resolution for the organization of any district under this chapter a certificate of the organization of the same. Upon receipt of the certificate the clerk shall within 10 days send a certified copy of the certificate to each of the clerks of the several boards of supervisors of the counties constituting the district, and shall also within the time specified in this section notify each supervisor appointed as a member of the board of directors of the district of such fact and of the time and place of the first meeting of the board of directors of the district. The time and place of the meeting shall be fixed and determined by the clerk of the board adopting the initial resolution, but said time of meeting shall be within 30 days after the date of mailing notices thereof. The necessary expense incurred by supervisors in attending and in going to and coming from any meeting of the board of directors of the district shall constitute a county charge of their respective counties.

The body formed under Section 4058 shall be called the board of directors of such district.

The members of the board of directors may enter into an agreement for and on behalf of the counties appointing them binding said counties to the joint enterprise provided for in this chapter and apportioning the cost of establishing and maintaining a joint county jail.

All sums found due from any county according to the provisions of this chapter are a charge against said county, and may be collected in the manner provided by law by the board of directors of a district formed under this chapter, or, in its behalf by the board of supervisors of any county in the district by an action instituted and tried in any county in the district in which the same may be filed.

The board of directors may establish the joint county jail provided for in this chapter and shall provide for the feeding, care, and treatment of prisoners therein, and must conform to such standards for construction, feeding, clothing, bedding and programming as are imposed pursuant to law on county jails.

Each county in a district formed under this chapter shall pay from its general fund its proportionate share to the board of directors of such amount as the board may designate to constitute a cash revolving fund to carry on the work and expense of maintaining such joint county jail. Each month a statement of the expense of the joint county jail shall be sent to the board of supervisors of each county in the district, together with a claim for its proportionate share of expenses. Amounts when received shall be paid into the cash revolving fund.

Convicted persons may be committed to a joint county jail from a county comprising the district the same as if the commitment were to a jail maintained by that county alone.

The provisions of Chapter 1 (commencing at Section 4000) of this title shall, so far as appropriate, be applicable to a joint county jail established pursuant to this chapter, and the person appointed by the board of directors to superintend a joint county jail has such powers and duties as has a sheriff, with respect to county jails, under Chapter 1.

The board of directors may make rules and regulations for the government of a joint county jail not inconsistent with law.

A joint county jail district formed under this chapter may be dissolved in the following manner:
  (a) The board or boards of supervisors of a county or counties containing more than fifty percent (50%) of the population of the entire district shall by a unanimous vote adopt a resolution stating that the existence of a joint county jail is no longer desirable for the public welfare and announcing the intention to withdraw therefrom and to dissolve said district.
  (b) The resolution or resolutions so adopted shall be communicated to the clerks of the boards of supervisors of all the counties comprising the district and also to the Secretary of State.
  (c) If it appears that the resolution was unanimously adopted by the board or boards of supervisors in the counties desiring to withdraw, and that such county or counties contain more than fifty percent (50%) of the entire population in the district, the Secretary of State shall thereupon certify to the clerks of the boards of supervisors of the counties composing the district that the district is dissolved.
  (d) Thereupon the board of directors of the district shall within 90 days:
  (1) Abolish the joint county jail;
  (2) Return all prisoners therein to the custody of the sheriffs of their respective counties;
  (3) Dispose of all equipment belonging to said joint county jail and the district;
  (4) Render an accounting to the clerks of the boards of supervisors of the counties composing such district of all sums of money received and paid out since their last previous accounting, including the balance of revolving fund on hand at said last previous accounting;
  (5) Apportion and repay to said counties all sums of money then remaining in their hands, and they shall thereupon be relieved of further responsibility in said matter.