Expanding jail diversion programs and electronic probation monitoring as well as reducing transfer wait times are some of the options Santa Barbara County is considering to reduce its jail population.
Michael Wilson—president of MW Consulting—presented an analysis to the supervisors on July 12 that looked at criminal justice trends, the jail’s historic population of around 1,000 individuals, its drop to 600 individuals after COVID-19 hit, and long-term projections.
“In the next three years, we would return to pre-pandemic levels and then little drops because it’s cyclical,” Wilson said. “Given what we have seen in the past and given the demographic forecast in the future, [we expect] around 800 to 900 fluctuating in the jail over the rest of the decade.”
Although policies that divert away from traditional court procedures will require additional research, Wilson said the county could see a 200-bed reduction if the supervisors decided to implement all of the report’s suggestions.
Aaron Fischer—lead counsel for the jail conditions class action lawsuit Murray v. County of Santa Barbara—told the Sun these efforts will also indirectly continue the work that brought his team here in the first place.
“If the county chooses to go that path, it’s the runway to compliance with the Murray case [through] a more efficient, more humane, cost-effective jail system,” Fischer said. “They will never come to compliance in that case unless they reduce their population, partially through smart policy initiatives and through retrofitting renovation and creating new space.”
Others aren’t so eager to see reduced jail population efforts. Coalition of Labor, Agriculture, and Business Executive Director Andy Caldwell said during the meeting that community members are at their “wits’ end” because of the number of crimes being committed.
“[Theres’s] property crime, equipment theft, and these cases aren’t resolved, and cops aren’t showing up to make a report,” Caldwell said. “You need to take a big step back and realize that Prop. 149 and 159 lowered the classifications from felonies to misdemeanors, misdemeanors to citations, and citations to what we call ‘don’t even bother to show up,’ or cops not even writing the report because they know nothing is going to happen.”
Sheriff Bill Brown added that reducing the jail population won’t save the county money, rather funds are going to be shifting to other services when jail beds are still needed. He pushed for a 1,000-bed capacity to be prepared for seasonal crime and COVID-19 surges.
“The number of beds we have should not equate to the number of inmates we have in jail. A jail under ideal circumstances shouldn’t be operating over 85 percent of its capacity. As we have seen with COVID and the ongoing nature of COVID, we need the ability to spread inmates out,” Brown said.
Regardless, the Board of Supervisors found the analysis helpful and expressed interest in beginning implementation along with continued research. First District Supervisor Das Williams said it was necessary to alleviate workloads at the jail and staffing shortage issues.
“There is a real urgency to implement these measures. It’s difficult to attract and attain [Sheriff’s] officers when they are on mandatory overtime. We can’t reach the staffing because the existing workforce is being stretched so thin,” Williams said. “It’s a danger to any scenario and adds urgency of why we should be implementing these measures as quickly as possible.”
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2022.