County earmarks funds for jail upgrade

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Prompted by chronic overcrowding at the Santa Barbara County Jail on Calle Real, the Board of Supervisors allocated $134,360 to the Sheriff Department’s budget in order to upgrade the Santa Maria jail from a type one to a type two facility.
Sheriff officials say the upgrade will allow inmates to be housed longer than 96 hours, which is the maximum amount in a type one facility.

The new chunk of funds, which was approved with a unanimous vote by the five member board on Tuesday, will be used to fund staffing requirements and meal service for the 39 bed Santa Maria jail.
Earlier this year, the board approved $25,116 that was used to make structural improvements to the exercise yard and visitation areas.
“The Santa Barbara County Jail has been plagued with overcrowding for many years,” said Sgt. Erik Raney, a Sheriff Department spokesman. “Although the conversion of the Santa Maria Branch Jail to a Type II facility is a step in the right direction, it does not solve the overcrowding problem in the main jail.”
Sheriff Bill Brown has proposed at least two other short-term solutions to the overcrowding problem. One included entering into an agreement with the city of Lompoc to store county prisoners there. The other probed the possibility of remodeling certain janitorial and office areas inside the main jail to make room for cells.
Other possible solutions to jail overcrowding are discussed on a biweekly basis by a Blue Ribbon Commission that was formed by Brown to discuss the issues surrounding jail overcrowding.
The long term solution of constructing a North County jail carries a price tag of $150 million and could be completed in four to five years if planning went smoothly and began now, according to past comments made by Sheriff officials.