Back when state Assemblymember Gregg Hart was a Santa Barbara County Supervisor, he and Sheriff Bill Brown frequently butted heads over management of the county jail — how big it needed to be, how many inmates it should hold, how many custody deputies were needed, and whether there were cheaper, more humane places to put many of the inmates.
Hart and Brown are still butting heads, this time over a bill — AB 2257 — that Hart just introduced in the state legislature that would empower county supervisors, in all of California’s 58 counties, to appoint someone other than the sheriff to run their county jail.
According to Hart’s District Director Ethan Bertrand, the bill would give California county CEOs and supervisors a degree of leverage they now lack when negotiating with their sheriffs. Since 1993, sheriffs have been legally empowered to call the shots on how county jails are staffed and run. “Without a monopoly over the power to run the jail,” Bertrand said, “the sheriff would have greater incentive to work toward solutions with the board of supervisors.”
Brown, the longest-serving sheriff in county history, has often been at loggerheads with the supervisors over the cost and administration of the county jail. More recently, there’s been tension over criminal justice reforms concerning putting mentally ill, addicted, and homeless people behind bars. Ballooning overtime costs and the exorbitant expense associated with building a new North County jail annex have certainly heightened those tensions.
In an op-ed titled “Assemblymember Gregg Hart Misses the Mark,” Brown wrote, “There are reasons why sheriffs run the jail system for 57 of California’s 58 counties. It’s because sheriffs and their staff have the experience, the knowledge, and the legal authority to run those jails in the most efficient and effective way possible.” He noted that jails had been turned over to civilian oversight in Santa Clara and Madera counties only to have that administrative control returned to the sheriff because of morale problems, higher costs, legal liability, security, and efficiency. In Napa County — the only county now where the jail is not run by the sheriff, Brown noted — grand juries recommended that control be returned to the sheriff.
As to the sheriffs alleged monopoly, Brown argued that “robust accountability measures are already in place.” These, he said, include, the governor, the attorney general, the board of corrections, state and federal courts, the grand jury, and the voters. He chided Hart for not speaking with him before introducing the bill or visiting the county jail. Brown said Hart’s energy would be better spent securing more state funding for mental health programs in the county jail, not to mention rehab programs, and staffing. Hart’s bill was introduced February 19 and has yet to be assigned to committee.
