New jail facility in final phase of construction

Construction of the new jail in Santa Maria is nearly complete.

“The Santa Barbara County Main Jail was getting over crowded. W e had a lot of inmates sleeping on the floor. We were over capacity. It’s an ancient facility built in the 1960’s,” said representative Thomas Jenkins of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

The new facility means Santa Maria and Gaudalupe inmates will remain local. and eliminating a lot of traffic time on the road.

” t will also allow us to have less inmates being transported from Santa Barbara to Santa Maria to go to court. Hopefully in the long term we’ll be able to shrink that quit a bit,” Jenkins said.

The new jail includes 376 beds.

32 of those are intended for inmates with medical or mental health need-style beds.

Northern branch jail project manager John Green is pleased with the progress of the construction.

“T his facility is mostly constructed of concrete block and steel,” Green said.

There will be what the sheriff’s office describes as “direct supervision”

“This means we’re going to have more of an impact on their behavior and we hope it translates into their behavior outside a little better than the current facility does,” Jenkins said.

The facility is expected to open by early 2020.