The long-awaited Northern Branch Jail in Santa Maria won’t just feature new facilities for Santa Barbara County inmates, but new technology that officials claim will improve safety and cut down on transportation costs.
Plans for the 376-bed, $110.8 million facility will include audio and video conferencing technology that will allow inmates to meet with their attorneys and even participate in hearings and arraignments in court without having to leave the jail.
Thomas Jenkins, the retired Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office commander overseeing the Northern Branch Jail project, said the facility will come equipped with video conferencing spaces that will allow inmates to appear in court for arraignments and other hearings by video. He said the technology would help cut down on costs and manpower associated with transporting inmates to court, particularly if they have to appear in Santa Barbara. Jenkins also indicated that video arraignment means inmates would spend less time traveling and waiting away from the jail, freeing them up to participate in rehabilitation programs and other activities.
“We want to have a lot of programming to address recidivism,” Jenkins said. “When they are being transported back and forth, they are missing that programming.”
In addition, Jenkins said the jail would also contain multiple visitation booths, where inmates can speak with their attorneys or investigators. Jenkins said there will be one booth for each of the jail’s three housing areas, and that it will be equipped with audio and video conferencing technology, allowing attorneys to cut down on the time it takes to travel to jail, sign in, and go through other time-intensive formalities in order to visit a client in person.
“Even for a 10-minute conversation, it cost them an hour and a half,” Jenkins said. “This way, the attorney can call, and we can move them into a booth and they can have conversation.”
Jenkins said attorneys will still have the ability to visit their clients in person, and that the video conferencing was just an option for them.
The Northern Branch Jail is tentatively scheduled to open in August of this year.
This article appears in Jan 24-31, 2019.