Santa Clara County<\/a> leaders approved a broad plan to spend roughly $1 billion over several years to revamp significantly outdated jail facilities described as \u201cawful\u201d by county officials, and bring them into compliance with longstanding court orders to improve safety and conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe unanimous decision by the Board of Supervisors came over the protests of dozens of residents and advocates for people who are or have been incarcerated, who called on leaders to avoid further spending on new jail buildings, and to instead invest more in preventive and intervention programs, housing and education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Supervisors said the decision reflects dual realities in the county, with leaders pledging to continue efforts to reduce incarceration and recidivism, while also facing a legal mandate to have adequate, safe facilities for people who are jailed and the people who work there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is not about an either-or decision,\u201d Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said just before voting to support the plans this week. \u201cWe need to do everything we can to prevent people from entering the criminal legal system. When those investments are not successful, our obligation to care for people doesn\u2019t end when they are incarcerated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg speaks during an event celebrating the opening of Vermont House, a new residential treatment facility in San Jos\u00e9 for people leaving jail with mental health needs.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe punishment of incarceration itself, while it has debatable value, is the deprivation of liberty,\u201d Ellenberg said, and \u201cshould not be the exposure to unsafe, deteriorating or inhumane conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county plans are aimed at addressing the most pressing needs at both its jail facilities: the Main Jail near downtown San Jos\u00e9 and the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas. The changes include major investments in spaces for better medical and mental-health care, more efficient intake and processing and better assessment of people\u2019s needs as they are coming into the jails.<\/p>\n
Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga said she has toured both jail facilities and was \u201cshocked\u201d by the conditions. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond just cleaning the facilities. It\u2019s really quite deplorable,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The lack of proper facilities, including layouts that make it harder for staff to supervise people, and the lack of access to adequate mental health and medical facilities have contributed to devastating outcomes like jail deaths and assaults, which led to costly lawsuits and two federal consent decrees mandating improvements with court oversight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Sylvia Arenas, the District 1 supervisor for Santa Clara County, speaks during a ceremony at Regional Medical Center in East San Jos\u00e9 to mark the county\u2019s first day of ownership of the facility, on April 1, 2025.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n
The new facility would also \u201cprovide 300 new dedicated and purpose-built beds specifically for people with serious mental illness,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n
Another men\u2019s housing unit at Elmwood with 540 beds would be demolished, with a new 672-bed modern facility to replace it, allowing some of the high-security inmates from the Main Jail to be transferred there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Main Jail would be in line for a new 56,000-square-foot intake, booking and short-term housing facility that would provide \u201cdedicated space for medical, mental health, and custody assessments,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Supervisor Sylvia Arenas said she wants the county to be \u201cequally ambitious\u201d about spending on youth violence prevention programs, education and other efforts to lower incarceration rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Santa Clara County supervisors approved a $1 billion plan to revamp two jail facilities over the next several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-446895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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