After years in the planning, funding and approval stages likened to a roller-coaster ride, the long-awaited Northern Branch Jail moved closer to reality with a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday to mark the start of construction for the largest-ever public works project in Santa Barbara County history.
Sheriff Bill Brown, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, local judges, law enforcement officers and other officials gathered at the site west of Santa Maria at 2301 Black Rd., near the intersection of Betteravia and Black roads.
Officials say the $111 million state-of-the-art facility will provide much needed inmate housing, medical and mental health treatment and program space with 376 beds.
“This is a significant day in Santa Barbara County history,” said Chairman Peter Adam, who represents the Fourth District on the Board of Supervisors. “It’s especially gratifying to know we are bringing a much-needed modern facility to benefit public safety officers and to improve public safety in the North County.”
Brown, who is in his third term, said some people were skeptical the jail would ever reach the construction phase.
“This will be the largest public works project in the county of Santa Barbara’s history,” Brown said.
The project will create jobs and infuse millions of dollars into the local economy, he said.
“It will also result in changed and revitalized lives, lower rates of crimes and a safer Santa Barbara County,” Brown said, adding his agency has struggled for nearly 35 years to maintain a jail that is overcrowded, in need of repairs and short of space for medical programs.
The new facility will be a hybrid jail and prison, important as the county copes with criminal justice realignment that bought inmates who stay longer than a year, the sheriff said.
Overcrowding, staffing limitation and lack of room have hampered efforts to deliver substance abuse treatment, cognitive behavior therapy, vocational training and other important programs for inmates re-entering society, Brown said.
The 376-bed facility will house male and female inmates in high security, medium security and isolation cells. Additionally, it will include 32-special bed for mental health and medical purposes along with a medical clinic.
“This new facility has been designed with the ability to efficiently do all of those things by having program space in the housing areas, thus allowing us to bring the program to the inmates, rather than the staff-intensive way of bringing the inmates to the programs,” Brown said.
The sheriff praised the teamwork needed by his staff and other agencies to reach the construction stage, and made special mention of retired commander Tom Jenkins, who had worked on the project for 15 years.
“I’m convinced that we can positively impact the lives of many of those we put in jail and I am delighted this new facility is going to give us countless opportunities to do so,” he said.
“In closing today, let me say that with this investment in the new Northern Branch Jail, we will be leading the way into a new era of corrections in Santa Barbara County that will ultimately help inmates break the cycle of recidivism and make Santa Barbara County a safer place.”
Santa Barbara County received $80 million in state grant funding for the project.
In her keynote speech, Linda Penner, chair of the board for the California Board of State and Community Corrections, said at the time the state awarded the money, Santa Barbara County was the only jurisdiction talking about programs to help inmates re-enter society and to talk about ending the cycle of repeat offenders.
“It was Santa Barbara that knew a long time ago that we couldn’t incarcerate our way out of the dilemma we face in society, and so for that, to all of you, congratulations,” Penner said.
Construction work on the 133,000-square-foot facility is expected to take two years with the new jail set open in spring 2019. However, officials expect it will be substantially completed by September 2018.
In July the county awarded a $77.7 million construction bid package to Costa Mesa-based SJ Amoroso Construction Co., Inc., and the $2.9 million bid package for offsite utility and road improvement work was awarded to Santa Maria-based Spiess Construction Co., Inc.
The new jail will have 124 full-time employees including 90 custody deputies once it opens, and is estimated to have an operating cost around $18-20 million annually.
The Santa Barbara Main Jail will continue operating once the new facility opens.
While celebrating the new jail, Tuesday’s ceremony did not include a once-planned component, a 228-bed facility for medical and mental-health treatment and reentry programs. The Board of Supervisors previously rejected the additional facility amid concerns about the $2 million annual operating cost.
The county officially relinquished the $40 million state grant award offer for that Sheriff’s Treatment and Re-entry Complex in January.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
