Santa Barbara County officials are seeking community input ahead of plans to expand the Northern Branch Jail and downsize the Main Jail near Santa Barbara.
As the Board of Supervisors discussed in June, the county’s goal is to make the Northern Branch Jail near Santa Maria the larger facility for the county, and significantly decrease the services at the aging Main Jail.
At 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, the county will host a virtual meeting for residents to discuss official plans for the two facilities.
The county has not released information about how many beds it may add to the Northern Branch Jail or the Main Jail. County officials hope to make an official decision in 2025.
Under an old proposal from 2023, the county would reduce the number of beds at the southern jail to 128 and use it only for booking and pre-arraignment. Simultaneously, the county would add 256 new beds to the Northern Branch Jail, for a total of 728.
County spokeswoman Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta said the cost of doing deferred maintenance and renovations to bring the Main Jail up to date was one of the reasons for expanding the Northern Branch Jail.
“(It was) actually more cost effective to build brand new onto the Northern Branch Jail than to just go through the process of renovating the Main Jail,” she said.
The Northern Branch Jail at 2301 Black Road opened in 2022 to reduce overcrowding in the Main Jail.
The cost of running both jails has also been a constant concern for the county, which spent over $90 million for operating the two facilities in 2023. Adding to the costs was overtime payments for Sheriff’s Department custody deputies who staff the jails.
The costs of overtime for the buildings have increased drastically over the years. In 2023, the costs of staffing the jails increased by 50% compared to three years earlier.
The mandatory overtime for custody deputies has also made it difficult to hire and retain staff, Undersheriff Craig Bonner has said.
The modern design of the Northern Branch Jail requires fewer custody staff, and can provide more programming and services to people in custody, county officials have said.
It’s also safer for staff and people in custody, Gerckens Buttitta said.
“It has a direct supervision facility,” she said. “So, this is where custody deputies work within the housing unit 24/7. This enhances supervision and safety, and this model has been really proven to increase safety for inmates, staff, and visitors.”
The estimated cost of the expansion plan is $76 million, which the county says would be funded by reducing services at the Main Jail.
Since the plan was proposed, the Board of Supervisors has raised concerns about how it would work.
During a June meeting, Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann asked about staffing. The last report from the Sheriff’s Office was from March 2020 – before the Northern Jail opened.
Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson expressed support for the plan despite its cost. He said that the status quo of paying for both jails is worse than the price of changing the county’s jailing system.
Steve Lavagnino, who represents the Fifth District, told Noozhawk he supports the plan to move operations to the Northern Branch Jail.
One of the reasons Lavagnino gave is the cost of running both facilities and the age of the Main Jail. He said that the Main Jail is out of date, and is not designed well for the modern day.
“I’m sure it was a state-of-the-art facility when it was built, but things have changed in the way that we incarcerate individuals (and) the programming that we have available to them,” Lavagnino said.
Lavagnino also said the price of renovating or expanding the jails is never going to decrease, and kicking the can down the road will only cost more in the future.
He also said that the results of Proposition 36 during the Nov. 5 election show that Californians want to be tougher on crime. Lavagnino says he believes the county may see more people sentenced to longer terms.
If this is the future, he said, the county needs a place to humanely incarcerate inmates.
“We got to prepare ourselves,” Lavagnino said. “We’ve really got to take a look at that. Not what we want the world to be, but what it actually is.”
Register here for the community meeting on the Northern Branch Jail.
