By the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
An apparent escape attempt was stopped at the Main Jail on Monday night.
On July 31, 2023, at approximately 8:44 p.m., custody deputies observed five unescorted inmates in an unauthorized area. This incident occurred during a group movement as part of a routine linen exchange.
Custody staff initiated safety procedures including locking down the facility while Sheriff’s deputies and area agencies responded to the exterior of the jail to assist.
The involved inmates were quickly located within the jail facility where they had defeated one layer of security, with several layers of security remaining between them and the public. The inmates were secured and rehoused.
Sheriff’s detectives responded to conduct a criminal investigation that remains ongoing. The identity of the involved inmates is pending due to the ongoing investigation.
I wonder how many staff were on duty to keep this from happening? Those jail guards have been working understaffed for so long, as the department asks more of them. The jails are operating under dangerous working conditions. Someone needs to ask the right questions as far as the crisis they are facing right now, in regards to their staffing.
Because the County Jail now houses people doing State sentences for up to three years, it is run more like a prison. The meals are provided by a contractor. The medical services are also provided by another contractor. It’s basically on lockdown most of the day. I wonder how five inmates got to an unathorized area?
The jails were recently sued by an inmate. They have to provide all programs no matter how short staffed they are. They are putting the guards life in danger but got scared straight by this law suit. I doubt they are ever on lockdown
Not mentioned here is the fact that ‘multiple shivs’ were found in the would-be escapee’s cells. These are not ‘model prisoners.’ Our jail houses seriously dangerous offenders as a result prison realignment. Beware the consequences. —
JB86 – “Our jail houses seriously dangerous offenders” – Isn’t that a good thing?
Can anybody tell me if they know of another country that allows inmates not only to sue prisons, but to make demands for what they want and what programs they want while they’re in prison. Just wondering.
What? You don’t become sub-human if you are locked up, nor do you lose your rights. What a strange and dangerous point of view.
MEBK – yes, every other developed country on our planet allows inmates to retain some rights. Why do you folks push so hard for the USA to devolve to the level of dictatorships and other developing nations? Cops armed to the teeth, no inmate rights, can’t learn about the “bad” parts of our history, men can’t dress like women, etc. America is slipping. Time to improve or move.
Singapore is developed and they will dispense corporal punishment and then give you 30 years for marijuana possession. Once you get to prison, the food is supposed to be pretty good, and you have rights. One of those rights you will still retain is the right to be caned. Singapore has about the same population as Norway, but twice the number of prisoners. Probably because the concept of “running amok” comes from Malays going on machete chopping sprees
“…every other developed country on our planet allows inmates to retain some rights.”
In order to understand, can you please elaborate? For example, Norway is developed and only has 5.4 million population with 3000 incarcerated. Norway has very progressive prisons, but they can afford to. Deep Blue LA County has 5X as many inmates in just LA county Jail as Norway has in its entire system even though the LA County population is less than 2X Norway. Why?
Russia is developed and has 143 million population and 350,000. Russian prisons sent 17,000 prisoners to war in Ukraine where they are said to have sustained 80% casualties. Russian prison are said to be amongst the worst of the developed world.
You are correct in that both Norway and Russia extend rights to prisoners, although in Russia’s case, the rights are on paper, not reality. China is developed and has some of the worst prison “rights” abuses in the world and the Chinese answer is usually a politely worded form of “go mind your own f-ing business”
For this to work, we need to discuss large developed nations, ideas from smaller