DETENTION FACILITIES IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY

Although Grand Juries have supported the construction of a North County Jail for years, the issue is more urgent now than ever before.

There is overcrowding in the Santa Barbara Main Jail as a result of escalating criminal activities. The average daily population has climbed steadily from 608 inmates in 1985 to 1,214 inmates in 1999.~Exhibit-1~ As overcrowding increased, male inmates had to be accommodated in triple bunks, beds in dayrooms and even by sleeping on the floor. This created health issues and safety concerns for both inmates and correction officers, and increased the possibility of assaults and escapes.

The situation was exacerbated in September 1998 when Judge William L. Gordon issued an order to impose a cap on the Main Jail to decrease the number of beds for male inmates from 702 to 587, giving the Sheriff a one-year period to comply. ~Exhibit.2~

Page 3). A Violent Offender Grant enabled the jail to build some isolation cells that increased the capacity to 605 male inmates. Consequently, an early release program was carefully developed which transfers eligible inmates into Electronic Monitoring (EM) , the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP), Work Furlough (WF) or simply put them out on the street on parole. A flex cap of 530 inmates was established. This requirement has been accomplished.~Exihibit.3~

The need for a North County Jail is critical also because of the security and cost issues. A large number of inmates are transported from the Santa Barbara Main Jail to Santa Maria Court Facility and back; to North County Municipal Court in Lompoc and back - a total of 22,473 inmates in 1999 at a cost of $337,861. By the year 2020, the Sheriff anticipates that approximately 1575 beds will be needed, with the growth of inmate population mainly in the North County. To accommodate this influx, the County Board of Supervisors has authorized a half-cent sales tax increase to be placed on the March 7 ballot to finance the construction of a 400 bed jail facility and a 120 bed juvenile hall, both to be located in Santa Maria. If the required two-thirds vote is achieved, the buildings would be completed in five to seven years.

In the Probation Department, a juvenile court addition attached to the Santa Barbara Juvenile Hall was opened in August 1999, and a new 20 bed addition to the Santa Maria Juvenile Hall was opened for occupancy in January 2000. This addition is still not sufficient to address the increasing incidence of juvenile crime. Since two-thirds of juvenile offenders comes from the North County, the proposed 120 bed juvenile facility is critically needed.

SCOPE OF THE REPORT

This report covers all detention facilities in the entire Santa Barbara County. A detention facility is generally defined here as a place for holding offenders for an hour, to incarcerating inmates up to a year in the Main Jail.

For ease of organization, the facilities are classified into three categories:

1. Facilities operated by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department include the Main Jail, the Santa Maria Branch Jail, the Male Honor Farm, La Morada Female Honor Farm, the Santa Barbara Court Holding Facilities at Anacapa and Figueroa Divisions, Santa Maria Court Holding Facility, the new Lompoc Court Holding Facility, Isla Vista Foot Patrol and the Sub-Stations in Lompoc Valley, Buellton, Solvang, New Cuyama and Carpinteria.

2. Facilities operated by the Municipal Police Departments in the County, namely Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Guadalupe and Santa Maria.

3. Facilities operated by the Santa Barbara County Probation Department, encompass the Santa Barbara and Santa Maria Juvenile Halls, Los Prietos Boys’ Camp and Tri-County Boot Camp

.

California Penal Code 919 (b), mandates the Grand Jury to investigate the conditions and management of public prison facilities and report on their findings. This report fulfills that mandate.

The entire Grand Jury visited the Sheriff’s Department and the Main Jail. The Detention Committee made an announced visit to each of the detention facilities, and additionally, made many unannounced visits. Many interviews with staff members and some inmates were made. Briefings were given by the Sheriff and the Chief of Custodial Operations. In every instance, we were treated with the utmost courtesy, tremendous professionalism and unfailing cooperation.

Among pertinent materials that the Grand Jury reviewed were the Santa Barbara County Jail Policy and Procedure Manual, Oct 12, 1999 and the Sheriff’s Jail Overcrowding Task Force Final Report, August 1, 1998.

The Sheriff’s Department is the County’s largest law enforcement agency with 665 employees and a budget of $55 million, protecting about 200,000 people residing within its jurisdiction and patrolling an area ranging along the 118 miles of coastline and into the Los Padres back country. Constant modernization is necessary to combat increasingly sophisticated crime.

A newly established Aviation Bureau with two helicopters obtained at no cost from the military and refurbished with a grant from COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services), helps with patrol, criminal apprehension and rescue work.

A state-of-the-art Regional Emergency Dispatch Center was opened in 1997. It provides centralized, county-wide dispatching for public safety agencies and serves the Sheriff’s Department and the contracted cities of Carpinteria, Buellton, Solvang and Guadalupe police departments, and their corresponding fire districts. It also answers emergency medical service calls throughout the County and the cities, with the exception of Vandenberg AFB and the University of California campus. In 1999, the Center dispatched 103,000 calls for law enforcement services, 8,800 calls for fire services and 22,000 calls for contracted emergency medical services.

The Grand Jury found the Sheriff’s Department Facility to be clean, orderly and well-maintained.

MAIN JAIL DIVISION

The Santa Barbara Main Jail serves as the sole, permanent incarceration housing for both pre-trial and sentenced male and female inmates. With the exception of the Chief and two others, custodial staff are professional corrections officers. Custodial staff averages 21 officers in a twelve hour shift. Main Jail population is divided into 52 percent pre-trial males, 34 percent sentenced males, nine percent pre-trial females and five percent sentenced females.

Every new arrival is carefully evaluated --- mentally, physically and socially. After 14 days, on site nursing staff conducts a physical examination and provides a mandatory TB test. Medical services are contracted to Prisoner Health Services which provides two to three nurses and a half time doctor on site 24 hours daily. Dental services are available once a week. Serious medical conditions are looked after immediately. Inmates are provided two cold meals and a hot meal daily. They are released to the exercise yard once a week. Television, reading, playing cards and sleeping relieve the boredom of incarceration. All laundry is done at the Honor Farm. Meals are prepared by Honor Farm and some female inmates. During the day shift the custodial staff of 21 officers is very busy attending to the needs and different schedules of some 580 inmates. Because of this and lack of staff, release of inmates is done in the early morning hours when things quiet down. Released inmates can make collect calls to arrange transportation or they are supplied with bus tokens or vouchers if returning to the North County.

There were 21,148 bookings in 1999, an increase of 1019 more than in 1998. Booked inmates are individually interviewed at length by highly-trained senior classification officers. Initial housing assignment is based on their sex, age, criminal sophistication and history, seriousness of crime charged, physical or mental health needs, assaultive, non-assaultive behavior and other criteria that will provide the utmost safety to other inmates and staff members. Adjustments are made daily as jail population is very dynamic. Even with these precautions, there were a total of 316 inmate offense and incident reports in 1999.

There are five classifications of inmates, which determine their levels of housing. They are:

Seventeen percent of the Main Jail population belong to Levels 4 and 5. Mental and possible victim or assailant and escape-prone cases are placed in the administrative segregation cells.

Through an early release program, the current cap of 587 male inmates was achieved six months earlier than the Court had ordered. The average daily statistic for 1999 was 671 male and female inmates. A total of 1,276 inmates were given early release in 1999 (Exhibit 4 - Page 8). Of these, 18.67 percent were released to County Parole and 4.37 percent to State Parole, 13.1 percent to SWAP (Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program), 10.27 percent to INS (Immigration), 4.05 percent to EM (Electronic Monitoring), 1.86 percent to OC (Out-of-County), 1.29 percent to WF (Work Furlough), and 21.26 percent were simply released. Of the inmates applying for early release, 20.05 percent were denied. Recidivism (failure) rate for males is 10.25 percent. This recidivism rate reflects only the period the early release inmates are on parole.

TOTAL RELEASES = 926

DAYS EARLY = 22,563

AVERAGE DAYS EARLY = 24.36

TOTAL RE-BOOKED = 95(arrest Parole revocations, SWAP, WF & EM roll-ups)

FAILURE RATE = 10.25%

REFUSED CAP = 72

REVENUE = $44,240.00 (Swap & Work Furlough fees)

CAP/TIME SERVED = 297

RELEASED TO ALTERNATIVE SENTENCE = 53

DAYS EARLY = 2,145 (For Alternative Sentence only)

AVERAGE DAYS EARLY = 40.47 (For Alternative Sentence only)

FAILURE RATE = 18.86% (For Alternative Sentence early)

REVENUE = $5,088.00 (SWAP & Work Furlough Fees)

The early release program has a built-in anomaly. When the male inmate population in the Main Jail reaches the flex capacity, a list of candidates for early release is generated. Inmates on this list must meet court-ordered criteria and are ranked in order of their normal release date. However, this list must include inmates at the Men’s Honor Farm, because it is discriminatory to preferentially release one individual ahead of another, independent of court-ordered sanctions, simply because of his site of incarceration. It thus often happens that inmates from the Honor Farm must be released before any inmates from the Main Jail can be released. This results in more inmates being released early than is needed to meet the cap on the Main Jail population.

Criteria for early release must incorporate assurances that the safety of the community is paramount, therefore no violent offenders and inmates convicted of any other crime affecting public safety will be released early.

Criteria for exclusions are:

"Violent offenders" - those convicted of an offense while carrying or using a firearm or dangerous weapon, causing death or serious injury to another person or the use of force against the person (domestic violence, etc).

1. Sex crimes.
2. Arson.
3. Crimes against children.
4. Felony driving under the influence.
5. Sellers or possession for sale of controlled substances.

Approximately 20 percent of the jail population are illegal and/or criminal aliens. Eleven years ago a program of identification and deportation of illegal and/or criminal aliens was instituted. An INS investigations agent has been assigned full time to the Main Jail since 1997. Out of 922 investigations in 1999, 552 (60 percent) were placed on INS holds for possible deportations. Speedy removal of illegal and/or criminal aliens helps alleviate the capacity problem. Only 33 percent of the costs of serving this population is reimbursed.

Inmate services are funded and maintained largely by inmate telephone commission and commissary revenues. Services include education courses and Sheriff’s Treatment Program (STP) counseling to inmates, 80 percent of whom suffer from substance abuse. Santa Barbara City College offers GED courses, Drug and Alcohol Education, Independent Studies, Landscaping, Food Services, Parenting, Computers, introductory counseling and

work readiness programs. This year a custodial maintenance class was added. Class attendance is high, with over 500 enrolled in a three-month period. Classes continue to be voluntary. In 1999, 96 inmates took the GED tests and 35 passed. The others did not complete the tests because of release or movement to other institutions. Inmate services support the law and recreational libraries in the jail.

Funded also by Inmate Service revenues, the Sheriff’s Treatment Program is run by three full-time counselors and a full-time supervisor. It is designed to help inmates treat their drug and alcohol addiction, start recovery and reduce their involvement with law enforcement. The basic components of the program are:

1. Intake and assessment. 2. Individual counseling. 3. Drug and alcohol education. 4. Relapse education prevention. 5. Client support groups including Twelve Step Programs, such as AA and NA. 6. Pre-release education. 7. After Care. 8. Drug testing. 9. Yoga.

Three hundred and thirty inmates participated in STP in 1999. The goal of the program is to provide a supportive, intensive, inpatient treatment atmosphere for inmates to begin their journey towards chemical sobriety.

Because of the lack of proper facilities to house and treat the emotionally disturbed population, roughly 16 percent of the nation’s jail population are the severely mentally ill. In 1999 with the excellent collaboration of public/private individuals and agencies, the Sheriff’s Department applied for a grant under the Rosenthal Bill and was given $3.54 million. It provided for an increase in personnel and a half-time psychiatrist, with the mentally ill now housed in their own unit in the Jail. It is hoped that with better counseling and care, recidivism will be reduced. Patients who represent a danger to themselves and/or others may be referred to the County PHF (Psychiatric Health Facility). Those in isolation cells under suicide watch are monitored every 15 minutes.

The Board of Corrections in its biennial inspection of the Main Jail on Sept 22 to 24, 1999 found the facility to have no deficiencies and to be 100 percent in compliance. The Jail also passed the County Fire Department’s inspection. The Grand Jury commends the hard work of the dedicated staff members for the humane treatment of the inmates while dealing with lack of space, personnel and funding. The Grand Jury also commends the staff for their careful administration of the early release program that is carried out under most difficult circumstances.

Finding 1: The Grand Jury finds that continued overcrowding of the Main Jail has led to a court order for an early release program in 1998. This was implemented in 1999. The early release program is a poor solution to overcrowding because it simply puts criminal offenders back on the street.

Recommendation 1: The 1999 - 2000 Grand Jury believes the best remedy to overcrowding is to construct an urgently needed jail in the North County. It therefore recommends that the Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff continue their efforts to inform citizens of this very critical need.

Finding 2: Two-thirds of juvenile offenders live in the North County.

Recommendation 2: The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors and the Probation Department construct 120 bed juvenile facility while concurrently building a North County jail.

1. Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department: Finding 1, Recommendation 1
2. Board of Supervisors: Findings 1& 2, Recommendations 1 & 2
3. Probation Department: Finding 2, Recommendation 2