Some local residents
have questioned the wisdom of spending millions building and operating a North
County Jail. A recent county grand jury report may have ended any debate.
The report was
issued early last month, and as any rational human might expect, it was not
exactly a glowing endorsement of the county’s jail operations.
The grand jury deals
with civil matters. It’s not the indicting-of-criminals type. The volunteer
group responds to complaints and tips about potential problems in public
agencies, which the panel investigates, discusses, then issues a report.
Santa Barbara County
grand juries over the years are definitely not universally loved — especially
by the agencies targeted in a report — but they perform a valuable service, by
focusing public attention on a policy or operational flaw, or in some cases
uncovering malfeasance and corruption.
This latest jury
report on the county’s jail situation reiterates facts widely known for many
years, that the main jail in Goleta is hopelessly overcrowded, and there are
potential procedural issues at the Lompoc Jail.
As always, the grand
jury reports stimulate debate, often heated. This time around Lompoc Police
Department officials openly dispute the jury’s investigative findings. Agencies
targeted in a report have a specified period during which to respond, and it’s
a safe bet this will go back and forth like a lightning-fast Ping-Pong match.
The panel also had
concerns about equipment at the Santa Maria Sheriff’s Branch Jail, and
communications inadequacies regarding budgeting for jail facilities.
One element of the
jail operations that are not in dispute, and haven’t been for many years, is
the chronic overcrowding at the Main Jail, which was designed and built to
accommodate 659 inmates, but has a running daily average of 726.
In the past, such
overcrowding has compelled Superior Court judges to order the early release of
excess jail population — a scheme that does not sit well with those who believe
early release of those convicted of criminal acts is a potential criminal act
in and of itself.
The situation got
significantly worse in 2011, with the state’s prison realignment scheme, which
began emptying overcrowded prisons and sending the less-offensive offenders to
already overcrowded county jails.
But the edict that
created that prison realignment was among the main catalysts that turned the
North County Jail proposal into an actual construction plan.
With a large funding
contribution from the state, the North County Jail is on schedule to open in
2018. Not only will the new jail ease at least some of the overcrowding
problems at the Main Jail, it will also save the Sheriff’s Department — and
therefore the county’s taxpayers — considerable time and money because North
County lawbreakers won’t have to be transported down to Goleta.
Still, California’s
prison and county jail operations are costing taxpayers a fortune each year,
and some of that money would likely be better spent keeping low-level offenders
— especially those whose crimes are primarily against themselves — out of jail,
and instead diverted to education and rehabilitation programs.
When it costs more
to house a state prison inmate for a year than the average Californian earns,
you know something is badly out of balance. There have been times in recent
years when the state prison system has been California’s only steady growth
industry. That is wrong, and should be corrected.
We know it’s a lot
to ask of state lawmakers who are accustomed to doing little more than 24/7
campaigning, but California’s approach to crime and punishment needs to be
examined, and changed.
February
28, 2015
Lompoc
Record
Editorial
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