Open house offers a public view of County Jail and Juvenile Hall
facilities
Residents, city and school officials took advantage of an open
house tour Nov. 19 that allowed an inside glimpse at the San Benito
County Jail and Juvenile Hall. From 9 a.m. to noon, guests were
invited to tour the facilities and ask questions.
Open house offers a public view of County Jail and Juvenile Hall facilities
Residents, city and school officials took advantage of an open house tour Nov. 19 that allowed an inside glimpse at the San Benito County Jail and Juvenile Hall. From 9 a.m. to noon, guests were invited to tour the facilities and ask questions.
Chief Probation Officer Brent Cardall and Juvenile Hall Superintendent Kevin Nitzel, along with a few other staff members, led the tours at the youth facility. Visitors viewed the control room, where correctional officers monitor each area by camera and unlock the doors for officers and inmates. Inside the building, the walls recently had been repainted.
“They hand-scraped the floors and painted the facility,” Cardall said, “The kids and the staff.”
Inside the common area, a large flat panel television played the orientation video created by the Juvenile Hall staff with film students from San Benito High School.
“It’s more for the parents so they can understand the rules and regulations,” Nitzel said. “They can feel comfortable. The kids can contact them through mail or the phone. Without the parent being involved, it doesn’t work. If parents don’t have a stake, it doesn’t work.”
Nitzel said the average stay for a juvenile offender in California is 13 to 15 days.
“It’s meant to be a deterrent,” he said. “We don’t want to leave them in here too long.”
The common area has small square tables where the inmates eat three meals a day. The tables double as chess or checkerboards. A shelf along the wall below the television houses a random mix of books, from Bibles to “The Babysitters’ Club” series.
One of the major renovations to the facility in recent years came after a Grand Jury report found mold and poor ventilation to be an issue in the shower area. It was resolved with the installation of a new air conditioner system and remodeling the shower doors.
The parts of the heavy metal doors that were rusted or moldy were trimmed off and the doors were refitted so that there is a small gap at the top and the bottom of each one, but they are still long enough to offer privacy for the inmates. Nitzel said refurbishing the old doors rather than buying brand new ones saved money for the county.
When juveniles are taken into custody and assigned a room, they go through a check-in process that Nitzel described as similar to an apartment inspection. When the juvenile is released, they must repair any damage in the room or pay restitution for it.
The days are structured for the inmates, who start with breakfast before going to school from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. During the tours, the students were in class, in a room that was not visible to guests. After class, the students have recreation time, which can be spent in an outside yard or in the common area. After recreation and lunch, many of the inmates have therapy classes. On Fridays, if they haven’t lost any tokens – a reward system for those who follow the rules – they can attend a movie night with popcorn.
The inmates are allowed two visits a week with family.
The department staff is trying to create an alternative program where the juveniles could be sentenced to work rather than time in Juvenile Hall.
“We hope once they get out, they won’t come back,” Nitzel said.
The Juvenile Hall and Jail were built in 1992. The Juvenile Hall can house a maximum of 20 people and has been at capacity in recent months. The jail can house up to 142 people and currently has 120 inmates.
Lt. Edward Escamilla, the jail commander, led the first tour of the morning at the jail site. While in the lobby, he went over some of the programs offered at the jail to help residents become more prepared for the workforce upon their release. The jail currently offers a food handling certification, and Escamilla said they are working on a retail job certification program. In addition, the inmates can take GED classes or anger management and life skills classes.
He also talked about some of the requirements of Title XV, the state code that regulates corrections facilities. San Benito’s jail meets, or exceeds, all the minimum requirements. For instance, Title XV requires that inmates are allowed to shower every other day, but in San Benito they are allowed to shower daily. The inmates get recreation time each day, two hot and one cold meal rather than two cold and one hot meal, and they receive two bed sheets and a blanket instead of just one sheet.
“We try to treat people like we would want to be treated,” said Patrick Turturici, the San Benito County undersheriff. “It’s not the Hilton, but we want to give them some dignity – a shower every day – it keeps the violence down.”
Tuturici said the jail has not had a riot since 1995.
As a type II facility, the jail houses all level of criminals. It has people who are newly arrested, those awaiting trial or going through the court system, and those who are convicted of misdemeanors as well as those convicted of felonies who are awaiting transport to prison. The average turn around is 15 to 20 days for most inmates to be released, but those on trial for murder can sometimes be housed for up to three and a half years.
At intake, residents are patted down by a same-sex officer and anything they have with them is itemized on a form that is signed by the inmate, the arresting officer and the intake officer. Residents are placed in a holding cell, a safety cell or the detox cell, depending on their behavior when they come in. An inmate who is combative may be put in the safety cell, where they are checked every 15 minutes so that the officers can determine if they need medical treatment.
While the inmates are in the holding cell, they have access to a phone to call family or friends, and they can post bail depending on the charges. The officers work on classifying each inmate to decide at which level they will be classified – minimum, medium or maximum security. They take into account the current charges, past convictions and state of mind. Minimum risk offenders receive an orange wristband and orange clothing; medium risk offenders get a blue wrist band and clothing; and maximum risk offenders wear a yellow wrist band and black-and-white striped clothing.
The jail has six housing units, or pods, with one-way glass. Two house women, and the other four house men. In the maximum security pods, the inmates are allowed out one at a time, which has lowered violence, Escamilla said.
Those inmates who are minimum risk and well-behaved can get a job such as working in the laundry room. All bedding and cloths for the facility are washed on site, as are the clothes from the San Benito County Homeless Shelter, during the months when it is open.
“There are benefits of working,” Escamilla said. “They get their clothes laundered every day. They get whatever leftovers are in the kitchen. They can watch TV and get out of the dorms.”
All the food for the Jail and Juvenile Hall is prepped and cooked by Aramark Catering at a jail in Alameda County, then driven to Hollister each day. The food is quick-chilled in Alameda so that it is still fresh when reheated. The meals meet dietary guidelines, and inmates can request special diets for health or religious reasons.
Escamilla acknowledged that many of the people in jail have been there before.
“For some people one day is enough to scare them straight,” he said. “For others, we should have their names etched on the doors. They are return customers.”
