The questions raised by the Board of Supervisors on Monday over the need for and financing of the planned North County Jail continued at a forum on Wednesday night. About 50 people gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara to hear from an ACLU lawyer and a couple of former inmates, in a discussion hosted by the Fund for Santa Barbara and CAUSE (Central Coast United for a Sustainable Economy).
After a previous speaker noted the history behind plans for a second jail in Santa Barbara County — including the 2008 Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Commission report on overcrowding and the 2010 failed county ballot initiative to increase the sales tax by one-half percent to pay for a new lockup — ACLU lawyer Jessica Farris launched into her presentation. For several years, Farris said, Californians have been shifting their attitudes away from incarceration and toward prevention and treatment. Alternatives like electronic monitoring, day reporting, and probation are “not slaps on the wrist,” Farris said and should be given more weight.
Although the 2011 passage of AB 109, also known as realignment, transferred the responsibility of some state inmates to counties, the passage of Proposition 47 last November has worked to reduce overcrowding across California, Farris said. The initiative demoted many felonies to misdemeanors, including drug possession, theft, receipt of stolen property, writing a bad check, fraud, and shoplifting, provided the crimes don’t exceed $950. Next year, the money expected to be saved from the change will be doled out to counties in grants.