To address safety and wellness concerns at jails in Santa Barbara County, the County hired two County Healthcare overseers to monitor inmate wellness and medical care.
Dr. Carrick Adam is part of a two-person team monitoring healthcare provider Wellpath in response to concerns over inmate safety and wellness.
"These are people who have families and deserve to get treated with respect and good quality care, and part of our job is to ensure that they are doing what they're supposed to be doing and providing quality care," explains Dr. Adam.
Dr. Adam and Aaron Stilwell were hired in December and at Tuesday's County Board of Supervisors meeting, the team shared recent findings thus far, showcasing several areas of non-compliance by Wellpath.
"One of the key areas is the safety cell checks. That's been an ongoing area of noncompliance," Stilwell says.
A report done by County Health shows safety checks were done 73% of the time at the South County jail and just 13% of the time in North County.
"Staffing is definitely a factor in there in terms of positions being fully staffed," Stilwell says.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, Wellpath has been the care provider for County Jails since April 2017 and since 2022, there have been six in-custody deaths, according to a Grand Jury report. Community Reporter Juliet Lemar spoke with Sheriff Bill Brown about this statistic.
"It's important to remember that, you know, people that are dying in jail don't die because they're in jail, they die when they're in jail and many of these people are not in good health to begin with, either physically or mentally," Sheriff Brown explains.
Dr. Adam and Stilwellsay their roles are strictly advisory, reporting all findings to the sheriff, probation, Wellpath and BeWell.
"We make recommendations, we help engage with those discussions, but it is ultimately the responsibility on them to, to solve those issues," Stilwell says.
Stilwell says one recommendation they’ve presented to address safety checks is temporarily hiring licensed psychiatric technicians to provide care until permanent positions can be filled.
Following the presentation, supervisors said the changes are needed soon for inmate wellbeing. Wellpath's contract will be up for renegotiation in April.
