Santa Barbara supervisors will decide April 1 how many jail beds are needed to rectify inhumane conditions in the South County Jail. The county will remodel part of that jail to retain 120 beds at a projected cost of $17.6 million. In 2024, it housed about 400 people daily.
The North County Jail has 376 beds. Adding 256 more beds, or one jail housing unit, is now estimated to cost $100 million or more to achieve a county-wide total of 752 beds.
This is both a costly and imperfect solution to secure public safety. Despite this, Sheriff Brown wants taxpayers to pay for not one, but two new jail housing units, for a total of 1,008 jail beds. Building more beds than are needed will irreversibly commit us to a long-term policy of over-incarceration.