Santa Barbara County Supervisors are scheduled to consider on April 1 how many jail beds are needed to address inhumane conditions in our county jails. Currently, the North County Jail has 376 beds but houses roughly 340. The South County Jail after renovations will retain only 116 beds within the Reception Intake Center. Adding up to 256 beds (one jail housing unit) to the North County Jail is under consideration but now estimated to cost $120 million-$132 million, which would achieve a county-wide total of 748 beds.
Our County Sheriff wants two housing units (up to 512 beds), at costs that have escalated to $202 million-$216 million. This would create a jail capacity approximately 33 percent larger than our current average jail population. Inevitable cost overruns will increase the construction total. Then add 30 years of financing costs and operating expenses every year — indefinitely. These vast sums will shrink the county’s General Fund for decades without an assurance of compliance with the federal court orders in the Murray case (a disability right lawsuit filed on behalf of all persons incarcerated in our jails against the county and the sheriff).
Our supervisors need to get this once-in-a-generation decision right. The board needs answers to crucial questions before deciding. It should appoint a Task Force of stakeholders with authority and a mandate to spend up to six months examining the facts and clarifying the bigger picture of infrastructure needs beyond just jail beds. We need to know what additional community mental-health resources could reduce the need for jail beds.
A well-rounded Task Force that includes stakeholders and community should address these critical questions:
• Why are we housing so many people in jail whose primary needs are treatment, not incarceration?
The jails house many who don’t need to be there for public safety. They include people accused of low-level, non-violent offenses who are court-approved for diversion back into our community, but remain jailed because of insufficient community resources to accommodate their release.
Among 732 jail residents in January 2025, up to 60 percent (over 400 people) had documented mental health histories:
- • 200 also struggle with substance use issues;
• 90 percent fall below our poverty line and cannot afford bail;
• 65 percent are neither convicted nor sentenced.
For low-level offenders, lengthy stays in jail increase recidivism. Jail health care doesn’t treat mental illness; it only manages symptoms until individuals return to our communities. The Sheriff’s Office does not have authority to force individuals to take their prescribed medicine. Many wait months in jail for a place in the state hospital or an acute or sub-acute mental health facility.
• What do cost-benefit projections look like if we limit jail expansion and use savings to build robust community healthcare resources?
Currently, it costs $332 per person per day in jail, or $121,180 annually. The current fiscal year budget just to operate our jails is $96.4 million, with $17 million in cost overruns projected. Every year, operational costs exceed the Sheriff’s allocated budget.
Overuse of our jails to house low-level offenders is a questionable approach to public safety. If we build more jail beds, we commit to greater operational costs indefinitely. A task force could provide a clear-eyed understanding of the aggregate costs of new jail bed construction, long-term financing, and operational cost increase projections.
• Why should the Sheriff be delegated primary responsibility for managing a community-based mental health crisis?
Jailing people who need treatment is a failing strategy. While jail serves a critical public safety function by removing violent and/or repeat offenders from causing public harm, our jails have become the largest housing facilities for those with mental health and/or substance use challenges.
• How can we better prepare people to return to our communities?
Many people don’t know that in 2017, serious shortcomings in jail management and facilities resulted in a federal lawsuit (Murray vs. Sheriff, Santa Barbara County) brought on behalf of all jail residents. A Stipulated (agreed) Judgment in that case identified inhumane jail conditions and inadequate care, requiring remedial action. Nearly eight years later, many remedial healthcare requirements remain unfulfilled.
Virtually all low-level offenders in jail return to our community. Robust community-based Public Health and Behavioral Wellness infrastructure could provide cost-effective ways to meet remedial treatment requirements imposed by the Murray case — with better long-term outcomes, A serious examination of alternatives has been overshadowed by the singular focus on jail beds.
A Task Force analysis can help supervisors decide before committing to more jail beds as the primary solution.
• What is being done to insure long-term retention of jail employees and prevention of future staffing shortages, without which jail care will continue to falter?
The Sheriff’s department has had a chronic shortage of jail custodial staff that results in large cost overruns every year. The December 2024 update in the Murray class action lawsuit calls states: “We and our co-counsel will continue to advocate for jail population reduction in order to reduce crowding, improve conditions and health care services in the jails, and reduce excessive and harmful incarceration rates.”
A limited jail footprint has a better chance of being fully staffed. A Task Force could seriously examine ways to safely reduce the jail population. Millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake.
• Do crime rates and population growth projections support the case for a substantial increase in jail beds?Available data suggests otherwise:
- Crime rates are dropping. In California, between 1990 and 2024, violent crimes fell by more than half, including a 68 percent drop in homicides. Overall property crimes decreased by 65 percent. In Santa Barbara County, “Part 1 crimes” (violent and property crimes) decreased by 16.9 percent from 2022 to 2023. The Sheriff’s website states: “The overall Part 1 crime total was the lowest it has been during the past 10 years.”
- Population growth projections are modest. The California State Finance Department projects that over the next 30 years, our county population will grow by only 9.55 percent (42,996 people).
A Task Force could analyze these statistics thoroughly. Current facts support conservative jail spending, not over-expansion.
Conclusion
We’re told a former lawyer for Santa Barbara County frequently offered supervisors a tailor’s advice: “Measure twice, cut once.” In other words, mistakes once made may be irretrievable.
Our supervisors need to “measure twice” by creating a Task Force to examine a broader range of options than just building more jail beds. Cost-effective community-based or hybrid solutions likely exist that can satisfy Murray requirements and better serve public safety and public health. Take a careful look at alternatives before deciding about jail expansion.
Laurence Severance, Maureen Earls, Gail Osherenko, Ana Arce, Wayne Mellinger, Robert Ornstein, Emiliano Campobello, Pam Flynt Tambo, Rev. Art Stevens, Laura Pina are members of the CLUE-Santa Barbara/League of Women Voters-Santa Barbara, combined Criminal Justice Workgroup.
