San Benito County officials struggle with growing inmate
population
While he’s ecstatic that a new District Attorney is taking
office, San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill is also concerned the
budget for the jail, already over capacity, might pop out of
control.
”
We can’t wait to get him in here, but there are going to be
ramifications to doing that,
”
Hill said.
”
Our conviction rates are going to go way up.
”
San Benito County officials struggle with growing inmate population
While he’s ecstatic that a new District Attorney is taking office, San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill is also concerned the budget for the jail, already over capacity, might pop out of control.
“We can’t wait to get him in here, but there are going to be ramifications to doing that,” Hill said. “Our conviction rates are going to go way up.”
Hill is struggling to make space each day in the jail, despite San Benito County having one of the lowest conviction rates of any county in California. Right now, San Benito County is ranked No. 44 out of 58 California counties, according to statistics from the California Department of Justice.
“What if the new district attorney takes that to where we’re 25?” Hill asked.
Making sure jail costs don’t rocket up now consumes about a third of Hill’s time. While keeping population levels down in the jail has always been an issue from time to time, the problem is slowly becoming chronic, Lt. Pat Tortericci said.
Over the past two weekends, jail guards stuffed 135 people into a facility that isn’t supposed to have more than 100, and each inmate costs $55 a day to keep. To prevent the jails from being overwhelmed, Tortericci calls on county judges to release nonviolent offenders every day now, he said.
“The magic number is 100,” Tortericci said. “Over the last three to four months we’ve had way over that number. Every booking I have in here I cringe. Right now all I think about all day is numbers.”
When a jail’s capacity exceeds an average of 100 inmates for the year, certain state regulations kick in regarding staffing. For one, the county would have to provide on-site medical services.
So far, Hill has stayed within his $3,059,000 annual budget, which is designed to pay for housing 104 inmates. This has been done largely through not filling six staffing positions at the jail, he said. Payroll consumes the largest junk of the jail’s budget. It costs county taxpayers $2.1 million to keep the jail’s 31 employees paid, he said.
Aside from the $295,000 in revenues the jail gets from sources such as booking fees, which are collected from local police departments, the rest of the money to run the jail comes from the county’s general fund.
And there are plenty of other costly side effects to an increasing jail population, Hill said. Psychotropic drugs such as Prozac consume 37 percent of the jail’s $75,000 medical budget, and the costs of those drugs rise steadily each year. While Hill has no plans to ask for a major expansion any time soon, the Board of Supervisors appears to be pleased with his performance so far.
Supervisor Richard Scagliotti said the board has few alternatives other than to give law enforcement the resources to enforce the laws.
“It’s something we have to do, we have a mandate,” he said.
Scagliotti said these are the types of things Hollister city leaders need to think about when they hand out building permits.
“Every time a splurge of growth comes on, there’s a splurge of services that comes with it,” Scagliotti said. “The courts and the probation department have been very good about finding alternatives to incarceration.”
One of the solutions the county is now working is the probation department’s ankle bracelet program, Hill said. Right now, five or six people use it at any given time, but Hill is looking to increase that figure to about 20 people. The ankle bracelet is an electronic device that effectively forces people to stay under house arrest.
Meanwhile, Tortericci is hoping nature will find a way to keep more criminals at home.
“It’s kind of comical, because I pray for rain at this time of year,” he said.
