Sheriff urges expanded alternative-custody campus as Prop 36 is expected to increase jail demand

Sheriff Johnson, Shasta County’s sheriff, told the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 14 that the county’s jail system lacks capacity to absorb expected increases in bookings from the recently passed Proposition 36 and urged the board to expand the county’s alternative-custody program into a larger corrections-and-rehabilitation campus.

The proposal matters because the county jail’s rated capacity (484 beds) and a long-standing court cap that limits usable beds to about 90 percent mean little practical spare capacity once classification and medical needs are considered. Sheriff Johnson said the court cap requires holding newly booked offenders pending judicial review, which can delay releases and increase in-custody populations.

Sheriff Johnson said the immediate goal is to expand alternatives to incarceration that both hold people accountable and reduce pressure on jail housing. Those alternatives include a larger alternative custody program that would: run vocational training (car care, culinary, wood processing and expanded agricultural production); provide mental-health and substance-use treatment; and use electronic monitoring and warrant enforcement to maintain…