A 61-year-old inmate jumped from the second floor of a housing unit at the Santa Barbara County Main Jail Intake and Release Center and later died at Cottage Hospital, where he was being treated for his injuries, according to a Dec. 31 statement from the Sheriff’s Office.
“Although this appears to be an apparent suicide, the Sheriff’s Office is conducting a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident,” sheriff’s officials said in the statement. “Investigators from Criminal Investigations, Coroner’s Bureau, and Administrative Investigations responded to conduct multiple investigations. The Coroner’s Office will conduct further investigation to determine the cause and manner of this death.”
The Sheriff’s Office couldn’t provide an additional comment because this is an ongoing investigation.
“The harmful conditions and lack of available mental health treatment in the Main Jail units remain areas of enormous concern. We continue to see people decompensating and suffering in those units,” said Aaron Fischer, a civil rights attorney and lead class counsel in the Murray v. County of Santa Barbara case.
The inmate death comes after a 2022-23 Santa Barbara County grand jury report found that the Sheriff’s Office needs to improve the delivery of jail mental health services, and as Santa Barbara County works to comply with the Murray settlement—a lawsuit that addressed the conditions at the county’s Main Jail and required significant expansion of mental health services.
“The county deserves credit for the progress it made with these mental health units in 2023. But there is no question that, here in 2024, there are far more people with significant mental health treatment needs than there are … slots, and there is a large number of people who are not getting urgently needed care,” Fischer said.
After filing for an extension to implement needed changes at the jail, Santa Barbara County met the court’s December deadline for an expansion of the Behavioral Health Unit—adding 24 units to the Northern Branch Jail to create 56 units total that will provide higher levels of care for people facing serious mental illness, he said.
Fischer added that the county started programs but wasn’t meeting treatment program requirements because of the health care staffing shortages.
The county is also continuing its efforts to complete a plan for providing timely and adequate inpatient treatment—which will work with people who are unable to take care of themselves due to mental illness, he said. Historically, there’s been one psychiatric health facility bed designated for people at the jail, but it’s often filled by a patient from the community and leaves nowhere for the Sheriff’s Office to send the inmate.
“Jail staff too often wait for someone to attempt suicide before sending them to the hospital. These have been major obstacles to providing necessary care for a long time, and they haven’t cut much ice at all,” Fischer said.
Originally the county needed a plan in place for inpatient care by November 2023 and implemented by July 2024. The county informed the court that the plan will not be ready until March 1, 2024, Fischer said.
This article appears in Jan 4-14, 2024.