In an effort to create a safer, crime-free community, the Santa Maria Restorative Justice Task Force welcomed members of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department to its June 12 meeting, where they presented the final report and the Blue Ribbon Commission on Jail Overcrowding’s recommendations.
According to the report, the Santa Barbara County jail system has been
seriously overcrowded for the last 20 years. Since the early 1980s, the jail has been under a court-ordered population capacity limit, requiring the sheriff to release offenders early or not incarcerate them at all.
The jail is currently operating at approximately 120 percent capacity. Industry standards suggest that jails should operate at about 85 percent capacity to ensure inmate and overall community safety.
In its final report, the committee recommended a blended strategy to handle the county’s jail overcrowding problem, which includes construction of the North County jail, as well as prevention, intervention, and recovery programs run by local law enforcement members and community organizations.
“Overcrowding degrades the integrity of the county’s court system,” Santa Barbara County Undersheriff Ken Shemwell said during the presentation.
Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rogelio Flores spoke to task force members about the importance of strengthening the court system and corresponding penal system.
Flores is the judge responsible for overseeing the Substance Abuse Treatment Court (drug court), drug treatment mandated by the passage of Proposition 36, and calendars specializing in co-occurring disorders.
Flores said that seeing a person recover from a life consumed by drugs and crimes “is like watching Lazarus walk out of the cave and reclaim his life.”
During the presentation, law enforcement and task force members discussed the many public safety needs in this community and ways the public could contribute to the efforts.
Concerned citizen and educator, Minga Ceja, said that the community needs to “do more to help potential gang members and other people in the community.”
“We need to remedy the competition between prevention programs,” she said, referring to prevention and rehabilitation programs that compete for state and federal funds to continue providing services.
Overall, Ceja said, “it seems that we just want to fix the symptoms, such as crime and drugs. We don’t want to address root problems, such as poverty.”
For more information about the Santa Maria Restorative Justice Task Force or the Blue Ribbon Commission Report on Jail Overcrowding, call Kathy Staples at 934-0743 or the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department at 681-4100.
This article appears in Jun 19-26, 2008.