In a Tuesday meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, the sheriff’s office requested the board vote on expanding beds at county jails in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria. During the meeting, 41 people gave public comments, including National Alliance of Mental Illness policy chair Lynne Gibbs.
"We should not be planning for the growth of the jail," said Gibbs. "We should be planning to get people out of jail and into treatment instead."
President of the Santa Barbara County Deputy Sheriff's Association, Neil Gowing, agrees that the county’s mental health services are inadequate and would like to see more options for diversion, but says more jail beds are needed.
"But the reality is, is that these people are still committing crimes," said Gowing.
According to the sheriff’s office, the average daily jail population is 750 inmates countywide. Gowing says that to keep up with anticipated future needs, they must expand.
"We're talking about inmates' safety," said Gowing. "We need enough beds to make sure that we can properly classify inmates that are housed so that they aren't violently assaulted."
According to a statement from Sheriff Bill Brown, none of the three options presented to the board expand the capacity of the current detention system. Broken down, Option 1 provides 748 beds; Option 2, 876; and Option 3, 1004 beds, which would cost around $210 million.
"We have to pay one way or another," said Gibbs. "We could pay for treatment that helps people get better, or we can pay for additional jail cells."
Public comments also outlined that adding more beds helps solve the sheriff’s problem with bed space, but does nothing for the county’s mental health.
During the discussion, supervisor Steve Lavagnino said the county misstepped by not adding more beds to the jail in northern Santa Barbara County when it was being built in 2015.
After six hours of discussion, the supervisors voted 3-2 to spend more than $200 million on the jail construction and remodel project to reduce the number of jail beds at the county’s main jail and expand beds at north county jail for a total of 876 jail beds countywide.
