•Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed Assembly Bill 2257—authored by Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara)—into law. This legislation grants county boards of supervisors across California the option to confirm a sheriff’s nominee to lead county jail operations. The law establishes a direct role for supervisors in approving jail leadership, helping close what Hart calls an accountability gap between sheriffs who operate jails and county leaders responsible for funding them. “As a county supervisor, I saw firsthand what happens when responsibility for funding a jail comes without meaningful authority to address its failures,” stated Hart, who previously served on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. “We faced preventable deaths, persistent budget overruns, and a Sheriff’s Office that often rowed in a different direction than the other county justice agencies. My colleagues and I were put in a position of writing blank checks to the sheriff for the jail. AB 2257 gives county supervisors a practical tool to demand stronger leadership, safer jails, and better use of taxpayer dollars.” Between 1993 and up until AB 2257 goes into effect, California sheriffs held exclusive authority over county jail operations while county supervisors maintained responsibility for funding jails and addressing costly failures when things went wrong. Hart’s legislation gives supervisors—in any county that chooses to participate—confirmation authority over jail administrators serving three-year terms, which Hart’s office described as creating “a regular point of accountability and encouraging closer collaboration between sheriffs and boards of supervisors.” The bill also allows participating boards to evaluate a nominee’s correctional management experience, knowledge of physical and mental health care standards, expertise in rehabilitation, ability to manage public budgets, and commitment to protecting the rights of people in custody. While sheriffs retain responsibility for selecting nominees for consideration by boards of supervisors, the supervisors have final say in the appointment of the jail administrator. “County supervisors are elected to protect public safety and ensure our jails are safe, humane, and accountable,” Santa Barbara County 2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps said in an Oct. 7 release from Hart’s office. “[AB 2257] is a common-sense reform that strengthens collaboration and accountability.”
•In response to local reports of recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) issued a statement on Oct. 15. “ICE is raiding California and harming people across the Central Coast. This hate, abuse, and fearmongering is meant to make us stop fighting and to keep Californians from our American right to vote,” Addis stated. “We can’t be quiet, and we won’t back down.” On Oct. 16, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) said that because of an increase of ICE operations in the area, he visited Santa Maria’s ICE facility in person to “get answers and demand accountability.” On his Facebook page, Carbajal stated that he was denied answers and access to the facility, which he called “100 percent unacceptable. … Our communities are being terrorized, and we don’t need to put up with this.”
•U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff (D- California) and Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska) introduced a bipartisan resolution—recently passed by the Senate—to designate October 2026 as Substance Use and Misuse Prevention Month. “I am proud to join Sen. Ricketts in supporting crucial prevention programs to combat the drug addiction and overdose epidemic in our country,” Schiff stated. Ricketts said in a statement that, last year, illegal drug use and substance abuse impacted nearly 45 million Americans. “This bipartisan resolution raises awareness of abuse and the need to support prevention efforts,” Ricketts stated. “We can and must do more.”
This article appears in October 22 – October 29, 2026.
