Activists Ask Supes Committee Not to Approve Mental Health Funds for Santa Rita Jail

A large group of anti-prison activists asked an Alameda County Board of Supervisors committee today not to approve the sheriff’s department’s application for $54 million in state funds to improve mental health services at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

The activists who came to the Public Protection Committee’s meeting said the issue isn’t whether there should be better treatment for inmates at Santa Rita but whether the county’s main jail is the right place for people with mental health problems to get treatment.

Helen Duffy, who is associated with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, an Oakland-based nonprofit group, said, “Jail is a completely inappropriate setting to solve mental health issues.” Tova Fry, of the Anti Police Terror Project and the Workers World Party, said that instead of spending money to refurbish two existing housing units and erect a new building at Santa Rita, the county should commit funds for more mental health services for the community at large.

Fry said, “It’s really upside down. We’re asking the board to reject the sheriff’s proposal and decline the state’s funds.”

Sheriff’s Lt. Jason Arbuckle said his department is seeking the state funds so it can consolidate all mental health staff into one location, which will allow for better collaboration among therapists at the jail by providing a central location for all treatment.

Currently, he said, clinical staff are scattered throughout the large jail facility, wherever room can be made, and support staff are in a separate location from clinical staff. Arbuckle said additional medical space would provide a more modern and centralized location for inmates on the eastern side of the jail and reduce waiting times and “traffic jams” at the current clinic site.

“The state is providing the funding so it’s up to us to take the initiative,” Arbuckle said. Aside from Arbuckle, no one at the meeting, which lasted for more than two hours, spoke in favor of accepting the money. Opponents of the proposed project at Santa Rita passed out a flyer saying “Stop Jail Expansion in Alameda County,” but Arbuckle said the remodel actually would reduce the jail’s capacity by 18 beds.

Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods said he agrees with the proposal’s critics, saying he thinks the county should focus on improving mental health treatment throughout the community, not at the jail. Woods said, “If you build it, they will come,” indicating he thinks the project could lead to more inmates being housed at the jail. But Supervisor Scott Haggerty told Woods, “We’re not expanding the jail, we’re cutting back.” Haggerty said the project “is about getting better treatment for inmates who are already there.”

He told Woods, “Don’t make this the Board of Supervisors’ fault” and said if Woods doesn’t like the way the criminal justice system treats mentally ill people he should talk to the state legislature, not the board. The Board of State and Community Corrections, which reviews and selects applications for funds, is scheduled to vote on the sheriff’s proposal at a meeting on Nov. 12.

If the panel approves the funding, the full Board of Supervisors will decide at a later date whether to accept or decline the funding. Supervisor Richard Valle, who chairs the Public Protection Committee, said the committee probably won’t review the matter again until January. Valle said project opponents “made a great deal of good points” and he agrees with some of them.

By Bay City News

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