The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced funding today for a new initiative that will divert people with serious mental illness away from the justice system and into treatment, the first of its kind in the County. The program received support today from the County’s Board of Supervisors, which authorized a contract to receive $3,328,000 in grant money from the Department of State Hospitals (DHS). The funding will establish San Diego County’s first formal pre-trial mental health diversion program, expanding community-based treatment and reducing the number of people who cycle through psychiatric crisis and jail due to untreated mental illness. [TWEET THIS]

[WATCH VIDEO OF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING DISCUSSION OF THIS PROGRAM]

“There needs to be a sea change in the way we address the needs of people living with mental illness in our community who find themselves involved with the criminal justice system,” said District Attorney Summer Stephan. “Today is another big step forward in a progressive new approach that is improving the way the criminal justice system handles individuals with serious mental illness, while still keeping our neighborhoods safe. It is also an example of the dynamic innovation and collaboration between our justice partners and Behavioral Health Services here in San Diego. An important focus of this grant initiative was providing equal access and equitable treatment for participants with serious mental illness and providing an evidence-based humane solution to the complex intersection of mental health, homelessness and criminal justice. I want to thank our County’s Public Safety Group for coordinating the grant application as well as Dr. Luke Bergmann, Director of Behavioral Health Services, for his continued partnership.”

Recognizing the significant nexus between mental health, substance abuse and criminal justice, the District Attorney’s Office brought more than 200 stakeholders and experts together to map the intersection of mental health, homelessness and criminal justice, to better-identify problems and recommend concrete solutions.

As a result, the DA released its Blueprint for Mental Health Reform: A Strategic New Approach Addressing the Intersection of Mental Health, Homelessness and Criminal Justice in San Diego County last year, which includes system reform recommendations to improve public safety outcomes. The 70-page document contains 30 specific recommendations for how law enforcement and the justice system can better respond to people facing mental health challenges, including the pre-trial diversion program that got the green light at today’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting.

California law allows a court to postpone criminal prosecution for up to two years, under certain circumstances, and instead refer individuals to community-based treatment that meets their specialized mental health needs. The DSH funding supports county diversion programs for a particular subset of all people who may be eligible for mental health diversion: individuals charged with felonies, with diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bi-polar disorder, who are at risk of being ruled incompetent to stand trial.

Partners in the proposed mental health diversion program include the District Attorney’s Office, the Sheriff’s Department, the Public Defender, the Health and Human Services Agency, the Probation Department, and the Superior Court. The program design is based on San Diego County’s successful Behavioral Health Court, and will provide, among other things, Assertive Community Treatment, wraparound services, case management, life skills, medication management, benefits assistance, peer support and community linkages.  The funding will support treatment and housing for approximately 30 participants at any given time during the contract period. [TWEET THIS]

After receiving hundreds of complaints about consumers feeling duped when purchasing timeshares at Welk Resorts, investigators found the California-based company was violating numerous legal requirements set in place to protect consumers from receiving less than they bargained for. Resort vacationers, who wanted to guarantee future vacations at Welk Resorts, were made to believe they were buying real estate, that the value of their investment would increase and that they could easily refinance their purchase, or that they would have easy access to premier vacation spots during high-profile dates such as Christmas or New Year’s. In actuality, none of those things were the case.

As a result of the investigation, Welk Resorts, Inc., which markets and sells timeshares, will pay up to $5.5 million to settle a consumer protection lawsuit that it misled purchasers of its Platinum Program as a result of its timeshare sales practices. The complaint, filed today in conjunction with a proposed Stipulated Final Judgment settling the case, alleges Welk Resorts made untrue or misleading statements and omissions to consumers who purchased a timeshare in its Platinum Program in violation of the Vacation Ownership and Time-Share Act of 2004, codified at California Business and Professions Code section 11210 et seq. (VOTA).

“The bottom line is consumers need to know what they are getting up front without false promises,” said San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan. “The law protects consumers by prohibiting timeshare salespeople from overpromising with misrepresentations. Truthful disclosures are especially important in a high-pressure sales environment such as timeshare sales. The expertise in our DA’s Consumer Protection Team was brought to bear to protect consumers from false promises in purchasing timeshares.”

As part of the settlement, Welk Resorts will pay $2 million in penalties and up to $3.4 million in restitution to Welk Resorts timeshare purchasers who were subject to false or misleading statements made during timeshare sales presentations between January 1, 2011 and March 31, 2016. The terms of the Stipulated Final Judgment, which contains no admission of liability, were negotiated with the San

Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the California Attorney General’s Office. The California Department of Real Estate provided valuable assistance investigating consumer complaints. The Stipulated Final Judgment is subject to court approval.

“Today’s settlement sets an unprecedented example for the timeshare industry – you cannot violate the law and expect to get away with it,” said Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “This settlement is a significant win for California consumers. It provides victims with the largest consumer relief package ever obtained by the People for violations of the Vacation Ownership Timeshare Act, returning money to the pockets of those cheated by Welk.”

Welk Resorts worked promptly and cooperatively throughout the investigation of the allegations being resolved through the Stipulated Final Judgment and made changes and revisions to its vacation timeshare sales practices and procedures during the pendency of the People’s investigation.  These changes and revisions included the development and implementation of a VOTA compliance program, that required the creation of new sales training manuals, mandatory sales training, and retention of compliance counsel. Welk Resorts also implemented a policy and practice of recording contract review and signing sessions by video and audio, when possible, subject to the purchasers’ consent.

Media inquiries for Welk can be addressed to Julie Wright at jwright@wrightoncomm.com. Welk owners who have questions can visit www.welkresorts.com/resolution for more information as it becomes available.

The case was handled for the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, Consumer Protection Unit, by Deputy District Attorney Colleen E. Huschke and Deputy District Attorney Steve Spinella.

Now that school campuses have been closed since mid-March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, law enforcement officials and human trafficking watchdog groups are concerned students are more susceptible than ever to sexual exploitation because teachers and school staff aren’t able to make the same observations as they would in person. Educators often act as law enforcement’s eyes and ears, noticing some of the telltale signs that a student is being groomed or sexually exploited by a trafficker. [TWEET THIS]

The San Diego Trafficking Prevention Collective, which was formed last year, is now providing online training to teachers in order to continue their mission of bringing human trafficking education, prevention and awareness training into every public school in San Diego County.

“Just because kids are not physically in schools, does not mean they aren’t at risk of being recruited into the dangerous world of human trafficking,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said. “Now that students are all spending more time online, they are a captive audience for would-be traffickers making contact on social media, which means we have to expand our efforts to educate them to prevent them from falling victim to predators.” [TWEET THIS]

Reports of technology-based exploitation have tripled to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Collective has responded to this increased danger by educating students, parents and teachers through virtual Teacher Academies, live presentations and self-paced web platforms. While teachers have less access to supervising students the Collective provides additional parent and community resources to equip families in their home environment. It has also increased online trainings for teachers and specifically as it relates to online safety in collaboration with Child Welfare Services.

The San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force is seeing an increase in the number of cases involving juvenile victims since the COVID-19 emergency started. In the majority of these cases, they have found evidence of the trafficker recruiting and grooming the victim over social media.

“Social media is the number one recruiting method for traffickers,” said Geanie Franco, Commander for the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force. “Parents should know what sites their children visit and talk to them about the ways strangers could try to entice children online.”

In the year since it launched, the Trafficking Prevention Collective group has trained 6,073 teachers in 280 schools and has interacted with more than 12,000 students. The San Diego Trafficking Prevention Collective is a multistage educational program that combines early childhood education, participatory theater, and classroom-based curriculum to decrease the number of children involved in human trafficking within San Diego County. The Collective’s website has been enriched with more robust content that brings awareness to the fact that nearly all high schools have reported cases of human trafficking.

“We were on a good trajectory of training teachers and students when the pandemic suddenly brought classes to a standstill, so we had to look at other ways to get the word out,” said Catherine Hanna Schrock, program and artistic director for kNOw MORE, a drama-based interactive training for students and families.

When it launched last year, the Collective obtained a four-year grant to fund the critical training, helping school districts comply with a law passed in 2017 requiring schools to provide a human trafficking curriculum. This first-of-its-kind partnership between the District Attorney’s Office and the private sector brought three unique programs to schools under the Collective’s umbrella: PROTECT, Project ROOTS, and kNOw MORE.

The grant has been funded by the UBS Optimus Foundation and several of its donors, which identified San Diego as a region with opportunities to augment its approach to human trafficking prevention and education.

San Diego is on the FBI’s list of top 13 cities for trafficking children. Human trafficking and research estimates that San Diego has an underground sex economy worth $810 million a year. Victims can be anyone – women, men, children, U.S. citizens or foreign nationals. However, in the area of sex trafficking, minors are particularly vulnerable targets. Social media is an easy way for traffickers to access and exploit children. The public can follow the Collective at @sandiegotpc on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. [TWEET THIS]

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PROTECT (PRevention Organized to Educate Children on Trafficking) – a 3 Strands Global Foundation program – is a holistic classroom education program that provides teachers and students with a comprehensive understanding of the dangers and signs of human trafficking and exploitation. Online or in-person staff training, instructional resources and curriculum are available to teachers in elementary, middle and high school. PROTECT helps teachers identify vulnerable students and connect them to the appropriate resources.

Project ROOTS – a PCI program – is an after-school program that addresses the root causes of gender-based violence, exploitation, and unhealthy relationships through group mentoring and social emotional learning. Project ROOTS has adapted several activities that parents can do at home with their children, covering emotional well-being, online and social media safety, and practicing empathy.

kNOw MORE – a Point Loma Nazarene University-Center for Justice and Reconciliation program – is a student-centered human trafficking awareness and prevention curriculum for middle and high school students. The program provides a drama-based interactive training for students and their families. kNOw MORE has created a digital version of the popular drama-based and survivor-led program in which staff works with schools to craft a suitable program delivery plan that meets the needs of each school.