As for other penal institutions in the county, the grand jury also looked at Preston and the Youth Authority Camp in Pine Grove. Their recommendations included more vocational programs for wards at the Pine Grove Camp and more life skills development programs for wards at Preston. The Amador County Jail was also a focus of the Grand Jury. As in the case of Mule Creek Sate prison overcrowding issues are addressed. The facility is often at capacity and management must determine who and how many inmates to keep incarcerated each day. Despite the recent improvements at the jail, according to the Grand Jury, the detention center is an old and obsolete facility that no longer meets the necessary requirements to house both male and female inmates, safely and efficiently, at the local level. The Grand Jury recommended that the Amador County Board of Supervisors should approve the Sheriff Department’s request to do a facility needs assessment with respect to building a new detention center.  In addition, the Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors should join the Sheriff’s Department in aggressively pursuing the construction of a new detention center in the near future.

Also the Grand Jury addresses, with a lengthy investigation, the maintenance of Amador County Schools. The report systematically describes multiple problems through out the district, including athletic field conditions, broken drinking fountains, and dying grass. According to the report the parent group at Pine Grove Elementary reseeded a grass field on their campus twice however, the report states, it “was not properly cared for and consequently, the grass has died. Fields and grass are once again problematic states the grand Jury, specifically; The athletic fields at the high schools are in poor condition.  Both football fields are consistently worn-out.  The baseball and softball diamonds deteriorate so badly during the off-season that it takes a major undertaking to revitalize them before the start of the season each year.  Granted, the condition of these fields is due, in part, to over use.

However, more important, maintenance of these fields is inadequate because ACUSD lacks the appropriate level of staffing and proper equipment to perform the necessary maintenance work throughout the year states the Grand Jury.  For example cites the report, in preparation for the baseball season, the dirt skin of the infield at Amador High School baseball diamond had to be sprayed with Round-Up in order to kill weeds that had grown during the off-season.  In doing so, part of the grass infield was sprayed, killing portions of the grass.  To make matters worse, the truck used to spray the Round-Up on the infield was subsequently driven on other parts of the field, thereby leaving tracks due to the Round-Up saturated tires on the truck.  The grass infield had to be replaced. The Grand Jury recommends ACUSD should review its policies and procedures for providing sufficient custodian and maintenance staff; whether dealing with old or new facilities, Also recommended is that ACUSD should provide regular training for custodian and maintenance staff.