As with many construction projects, the costs for the North County Jail continue to increase—but at least the county can expect some help footing the final bill.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously gave Sheriff Bill Brown the go ahead at a July 8 meeting to accept a $38.9 million award from the state designated for an addition to the current North County project.
The addition, known as the Sheriff’s Treatment and Re-entry (STAR) complex, would put another wing on the North County Jail, which is scheduled to be finished in 2018. The structure would add an extra 228 beds to the 376 already planned for the new facility under construction at the corner of West Betteravia and Black roads. Construction on the STAR complex would most likely begin before the original jail project is finished.
The grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections was made possible under Senate Bill 1022, which is one of the state’s ways of making amends with county sheriff’s offices that are now burdened with the fallout from Assembly Bill 109. That bill requires the state’s prisons to reduce inmate populations by releasing non-violent offenders to their last counties of residence.
Preliminary plans for the North County Jail were finalized before the passage of AB 109, and therefore couldn’t take into account the bill’s effects, which essentially increased county jail populations across the state.
Brown said the STAR facility will house programs designed to help inmates get ready to become productive members of society again, and hopefully decrease the number of ex-inmates who return to jail.
The county’s cost for the project is estimated to be $3.9 million. The operating costs and staffing needed for the addition were increased by $300,000 from estimates given at previous meetings, and supervisors Doreen Farr and Janet Wolf chastised the sheriff for the discrepancy. Farr asked to see numbers for the whole project—both the jail and the addition—at the next North County Jail update expected in the fall.
Supervisor Steve Lavagnino asked the sheriff if there were similar concepts already in place around the state. The answer is: kind of. Brown said there are projects under construction, but nothing to compare to yet.
“We have a need to bring these rehabilitative and re-entry services into the jail,” Brown said. “It is kind of a work in progress.”
This article appears in Jul 10-17, 2014.
