Findings and Recommendations |
Response |
Actions Completed |
Actions Pending |
| Findings and Recommendations 1-4 | Accepts the Sheriff's response. BOS | ||
| 1. Santa Barbara County Main Jail is consistently overcrowded. The BOS should implement a plan to build a North County Jail as recommended by previous Grand Juries and the Farbstein Report. | Agrees with Findings and Recommendations. Sites have been identified. Possibility of the bond issue on the November 1996 ballot would make funds available for construction. S | Bond issue (Proposition 205) failed. | |
| 2. Correctional Officer Staffing at the Main Jail is inadequate. The BOS should provide the funding to increase custodial staffing at the Main Jail. | 169.5 positions are adequate but shortage occurs when there is a vacancy; inability to fill quickly due to rigorous selection process. S | ||
| 3a. Law Library hours are not posted. Procedure manual is dated September, 1993. There is no written explanation for access denial or delay in granting requests. A waiting list should be posted. Information about the availability of the library should be posted or included in a pamphlet given to each inmate. | It is too time consuming to provide written explanations to inmates when access is denied. Posting a waiting list violates security procedures. Other posted materials are routinely destroyed by the inmates. Law Library services are mentioned in the Inmate Rules given to each inmate upon booking and in the Jail Orientation Video played once a week in the jails. S |
| 3b. The BOS should provide separate funding to the Law Library to assist the County Jail Inmate Welfare Services. This should include a person trained in the law: cost $15,000. | This is not necessary. Current Law Library services meet or exceed what is required by law. There is adequate money in the Inmate Welfare Fund to keep it current. S | ||
| 4. Santa Barbara County Jail Rules revised in 1991 are not in consistent with Santa Barbara County Jail Policy and Procedures Manual revised in 1993. Jail Administrators should review and update both documents. | Both of these documents are reviewed annually. Recently both documents have been revised along with the video which will be edited to coincide with these changes. The video, shown weekly, addresses all of the jail rules. All rules and policies conform to established legal mandates and to Title 15, the Minimum Standards for Detention Facilities. S |