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County27s CCP Presents Jail Population Analysis; Board Seeks Further Work, Requests Update in Six Months
Summary
The Community Corrections Partnership presented a jail analysis showing most people in county jails are unsentenced and many waits are driven by lack of treatment beds and case-processing delays. The board received the report and asked for follow-up, including strengthened data collection and an advisory review team to monitor releases and placements.
Santa Barbara County27s Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) presented a data-driven analysis of the county jail population on Dec. 9, concluding that most people in custody are unsentenced and that modest reductions in length of stay or expanded treatment resources could noticeably reduce the daily jail population.
Deputy Chief Spencer Cross and Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Ryan Sullivan told the board the jail averaged roughly 745 incarcerated people in 2024 and that the figure increased modestly in 2025. The report found roughly 73% (2024) and later snapshots up to 82% of the population were unsentenced — still awaiting adjudication — and that people with serious mental illness accounted for about 11% of the population. Chief Sullivan summarized the data: "In 2024, the population averaged slightly above 745 incarcerated persons during 2024," and updated figures showed a small increase in 2025.
The CCP recommended a set of actions to reduce jail reliance: expanding access to substance-use and mental-health treatment beds (release-on-bed-availability cases), expanding REDI (Reentry, Early Defense and Intervention) early-representation work, strengthening alternatives to incarceration (alternative sentencing, sobering centers), and creating a Jail Population Review and Advisory Team (JPRAT) to monitor individual cases and system-level data.
Public defenders and advocates urged increased staffing for defense, expanded diversion eligibility and greater investment in treatment capacity to reduce the number of people awaiting placement and shorten pretrial times. The board voted to receive and file the report and asked staff to return with updates and additional analysis in six months.
The CCP said the report will inform the county27s diversion strategic plan and ongoing efforts to coordinate courts, law enforcement, behavioral health and defense counsel to reduce the county27s jail footprint while targeting public-safety risks.
