Keep Bailing

Currently, the Santa Barbara jail being used is 40 percent over it’s recommend capacity level. Luckily, the State of California, through the Assembly Bill 900, has put up $56.3 million, (70 percent) for the county of Santa Barbara to construct a new jail in North County. Due to the recession, cost of construction will be hard to acquire, however, the Santa Barbara County already owns the land where they want to place the jail.

Even with overcrowding issues, other obstacles are still preventing Sheriff Brown from getting his new jail built. A $15 to $17 million annual budget is required for the operation of the jail, and while the state has already issued a generous amount, there is still $23.7 million needed to build the jail itself. In 2000, voters opposed the building of this new jail with a ballot total consisting of a two-to-one measure, under a lower proposed building cost.

This past Tuesday, Sheriff Brown proposed Read more »

According to the Santa Maria Times, a lawsuit filed by several local bail bondsmen was dismissed by the Superior Court Judge that alleged Sheriff Bill Brown and others were impacting their business by preventing inmates from making their free phone calls to bail bond companies.

A final ruling by Judge Thomas Anderle sustained a motion filed by the defendants that the lawsuit had no real legal basis.

The suit filed claimed that Brown, who Read more »

When you think Santa Barbara you likely think of it’s beautiful beaches, but this week, the city makes a different headline – the Santa Barbara Jail spent the weekend in lockdown after the third violent incident in the past month; this time a stabbing. The attack occurred in the early hours of this past Good Friday morning and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff is still investigating.

The stabbing left the victim with serious injuries that required a hospital visit and stitches. It also resulted in a facility-wide weekend lockdown for the rest of the inmates. Authorities do Read more »

Santa Barbara County attorneys are attempting dismissal of a lawsuit filed by local bail bondsmen. The bondsmen’s suit alleges that Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown, and others, prevented defendants in jail from making free phone calls to the Santa Barbara bail bonds companies, which resulted in a loss of business. But the attorneys’ motion contends that there is no legal basis for this suit.

Securus Technologies and Evercom Systems, companies that provide the Santa Barbara jail phone systems, have also been named in the suit. In May of 2007, Brown entered into an agreement with these two companies that allowed him to monitor, control, record, end and block phone calls made from the jail whenever he chose. Evercom paid his department a “signing bonus” of Read more »

Our California Jails Series Continues…

When you think of Santa Barbara you probably think of life enchanted by the Pacific Ocean… a lovely walk down State Street, a visit to the zoo, great food, college students at Isla Vista… As bondsmen, when we think of Santa Barbara along with all of the beauty the County has to offer, we think of the Santa Barbara jail system.

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds continues with the second in our series on California jails: Inside the Santa Barbara County Jails. Here we will let you in on

• Inmate Processing
• Santa Barbara Jail Operations
• Rehabilitation
• Overcrowding and Recidivism

Is there a jail you’d like to know more about? Let us know. We’ll get you “Inside” (or, if you need we’ll get you out!).