Santa Barbara County‘s jail healthcare contractor expanded access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for people in custody last year and improved staffing levels, according to Wellpath’s annual report to the Board of Supervisors.
Santa Barbara County contracts with Wellpath for health and mental health services in the two jails. The county previously implemented Health Department oversight and audits due to concerns about the level of care.
Wellpath historically had staffing shortages for the jail contract and now has to pay for missed shifts. Staffing levels have improved, with fewer vacant positions, according to Lt. David Harman.
Last year, Wellpath expanded the medication-assisted treatment program for people with substance use disorders, which supervisors pointed to as progress.
The number of people in the MAT program swelled to 1,216, compared to 726 people the year before, Wellpath reported.
The report also noted a “continued decline in overdoses among program participants.”
Dr. Carrick Adam, the county’s chief correctional health medical advisor, said Wellpath also enhanced discharge planning with post-release appointments and medications called in.
She said County Health is working on tracking how many people are showing up for those follow-up appointments.
The county plans to align the Wellpath reports with Health Department audit reports in the future, so the board gets a comprehensive look at jail healthcare, said Assistant County Executive Officer Tanja Heitman.
Wellpath reported more than 12,000 nursing and provider sick call encounters in 2025, about 3,000 chronic care visits, and about 2,000 withdrawal management visits.
Wellpath also reported 507 medical-related grievances filed by people in custody, including 190 reported at the Northern Branch Jail and 317 reported at the Main Jail. The substantiated grievances get a corrective action plan, and county health staff monitor the plans to make sure they are enforced, Adam said.
Last year, 13% of the Northern Branch Jail grievances were considered founded and 8% of the Main Jail grievances were considered founded, according to Wellpath.
Supervisor Bob Nelson said he would like County Health staff to be more involved in the grievance review process.
“Public Health is the ears and eyes into this relationship,” he said.
Supervisors voted to receive and file the report. They will hear the county audit report on jail healthcare in September.
There were two deaths in custody in 2025, both at the Northern Branch Jail.
Lompoc woman Caprice Fowler, 57, died of “natural causes,” a perforated gastric ulcer, on March 24, 2025. The Sheriff’s Office called her death a “tragic, but unavoidable death” at the time.
The Santa Barbara County Civil Grand Jury found that Fowler complained of abdominal pain for days before she died, but it went unaddressed by medical staff.
If staff had appropriately evaluated her pain, her death could have been avoided, the Grand Jury concluded.
Santa Maria man Juan Lara, 54, died after being found unresponsive in his cell on June 28, 2025, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The state legislature passed a bill last year requiring inmate deaths to be investigated by an independent coroner instead of the one contracted by the Sheriff’s Office.