Santa Clara County Moves Ahead For New, Larger Jail To Accommodate State's Prison Realignment
SANTA CLARA (KCBS) -- The increasing number of state prisoners being transferred to local jails has put a strain on counties throughout California, including Santa Clara, which has decided to move ahead with a plan to build a brand new jail.
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The Santa Clara County supervisors voted unanimously to pursue state funding to build a new 10-story jail which could cost between $62 million and $72 million and will be located at the West Hedding Street complex in San Jose that includes the old facility and the newer Main Jail North.
Brad Sassatelli, a consultant from MGT of America, told the county's Public Safety and Justice Committee on Tuesday that there is a rising inmate population and cell blocks in the current jail that are deteriorating. He said there is severe shortage of maximum security beds.
"We identified that right now that you're about 400 beds short for maximum-security inmates than you have beds and it's only going to grow in the future," he said.
The current Main Jail South houses 680 inmates.
According to Sassatelli's report, the average daily population of the jails has risen by 762 inmates since realignment began. But since rising to 4,157 last May, it has fallen to 3,622 this month since the passage of Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for certain low-level crimes.
But the report stated that a typical seasonal decline along with many early realignment inmates reaching the end of their sentences was responsible for the drop
Supervisor Mike Wasserman said that California's prison realignment program to ease overcrowding, is having a huge impact that needs to be addressed.
"I believe we must face the reality of the changes that the state's dropped on us; I've said that from the beginning," he said.
The new building would also include facilities to increase rehabilitation programs directed at inmates who are at high risk of going back to committing crimes after released.
