After wobbling on the idea for years, Santa Clara County leaders are struggling with how big the new jail should be when the incarcerated population has starkly declined since the pandemic. But they’re certain something will rise from the ground — even as they’re strapped for cash.
The county has started gathering community input on the needs of its crumbling jail system while simultaneously assessing the facilities’ conditions. Those efforts could lead to the construction of a new jail — the cost of which has historically ballooned the longer officials wait, from $390 million at one point to $689 million, then $747 million.
The Main Jail and Elmwood campus have significantly deteriorated and can’t provide minimally adequate confidential intake space for medical and mental health care or programming, according to county documents.
The situation hamstrings the county’s ability to provide basic services under two federal consent decrees the county entered in 2019 to address the unconstitutional use of solitary confinement under a former sheriff, among other issues.
“What is set in stone is we are absolutely going to build something,” Deputy County Executive Consuelo Hernandez, who is overseeing the community engagement efforts, told San José Spotlight. “Given that the jail population has actually decreased, it’s turned into this process of making sure we understand what we need to build. We know the buildings there are bad — but how bad are they? Can the existing buildings be rehabbed, or do we need to demolish?”
Jail dilemma
The resurrection of the jail dilemma comes as the county Public Safety and Justice Committee considers reviving its zero bail program, which could further reduce the incarcerated population.
None of this is going to easy because the county is grappling with another problem — getting community input from residents who don’t support building a new jail.
One of the region’s most high-profile civil rights networks, Silicon Valley De-Bug, has refused to be part of the county’s community input process — arguing the county would misconstrue its participation as support for the facility.
The organization’s founder, Raj Jayadev, said the county has a history of presenting new jail plans as open for public input, while quietly treating them as a done deal.
“We had actually asked the county to take our names off their list,” Jayadev told San José Spotlight.
It’s prompted the county to get creative about how to conduct community outreach. Hernandez listed a number of ways, including taking feedback without names attached.
“As a government, we have to be responsive and say, ‘You decide how you want to engage,'” Hernandez said. “We’re not trying to change De-Bug’s mind. We’re not going to force somebody to engage, but we’re going to be very clear about what we’re doing, and they can decide. They can decide exactly where and when to show up.”
Jayadev believes the construction of a new jail can still be stopped.
“I don’t think it’s certain,” he said.
One sign he points to is the Board of Supervisors voting in 2021 to cancel plans to replace Main Jail South. The old building had been demolished, and county leaders had momentum to approve construction of its replacement. But Jayadev’s group aggressively lobbied against it.
“They were so close to putting shovels into the ground to build that new jail. And this time around — until the final bell’s rung — we’re going to keep fighting,” Jayadev said.
Other community leaders are engaging. Walter Wilson, a member of the county’s Community Corrections Law Enforcement Monitoring Commission, said he understands but disagrees with De-Bug’s rationale.
“Everybody else is at the table,” Wilson told San José Spotlight. “At the end of the day, we have to have a jail. It’s a matter of degrees. To me, we don’t need a 5,000-bed jail.”
He said these discussions — and De-Bug’s involvement, despite its “no jail” stance — would be important to ensuring the new facility is as minimally scaled as possible. His vision, he said, is to build a carceral facility with several hundred beds and a mental health treatment facility with twice as many.
“There are people who must be locked up because they are a danger to themselves and to the general public. They just are. If you can’t acknowledge those people exist, you live in a bubble,” Wilson said. “The thing is, a bulk of people that are in jail right now — those people need to be in behavioral health facilities.”
Next steps
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Brooks Jarosz said the office isn’t leading the effort on planning for a new jail facility, but is committed to being involved in the conversations “every step of the way.”
“We’ll be part of the community engagement efforts to help build trust through open, honest conversations,” Jarosz told San José Spotlight. “Our shared goal is to create a safer, more humane facility — one that supports rehabilitation and wellness, reflects community values and enables staff to deliver essential services effectively while maintaining safety and security for everyone.”
Jayadev agrees the existing jails’ conditions are unacceptable. He said he still doesn’t think that should mean building a new jail over upgrades to existing facilities. He points to the environment surrounding the new jail discussions. The county is in the midst of considering the revival of its zero cash bail policy, a move that would greatly reduce the jail population.
Hernandez said the simultaneous weighing of zero bail’s revival is why the county is starting public outreach so early.
“We’re saying to the community, ‘You should weigh in on these policies that the county is is promoting or trying to implement. This is your opportunity to impact the numbers,” Hernandez said. “So if they get traction, if the county is successful in implementing those policies and introducing the bail bond program again, just like we did during COVID, then there’s no need for us to build (a major facility).”
The county has gone back and forth on a new jail for years. After supervisors canceled the Main Jail South project in 2021 they directed officials to gather community input on jail alternatives. The county compiled a summary report highlighting the themes that emerged from the engagement process, but officials argued it didn’t lead to viable alternatives. In 2022, supervisors again approved the idea of creating a new jail. But that too was later scrapped.
Supervisors last October then moved forward with a more holistic “Jail Facility Transformation Process.” It was a vessel for the persisting idea of a new jail, but one that would also looks at ways to upgrade existing facilities to better meet the county’s constitutional mandates.
Wilson said he agrees on the need for a reduced jail population — an experiment the county pulled off during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You reduce that number by 1,500 like what we did during COVID, the number of guards you need and cost of maintaining that facility goes down dramatically,” he said.
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
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