Edhat Staff
A Santa Barbara County jail inmate died on Sunday in an apparent suicide, reports the County Sheriff’s Office.
At 8:10 a.m. on December 31, 2023, an inmate jumped from the second floor of a housing unit at the Main Jail Intake and Release Center in Santa Barbara.
The inmate has been identified as Scott Powers, 61-years-old from Santa Barbara.
“Custody staff entered the multi-person housing unit and began assessing the inmate. Custody deputies and WellPath medical staff immediately began CPR and applied an automated external defibrillator (AED),” according to Lieutenant Jarrett Morris.
County Fire and American Medical Response (AMR) were summoned and responded to the jail facility. Paramedics continued life-saving measures and transported the inmate to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for advanced life-saving efforts, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
“Although this appears to be an apparent suicide, the Sheriff’s Office is conducting a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident,” said Morris.
Investigators from Criminal Investigations, Corners Bureau, and Administrative Investigations responded to conduct multiple investigations. The Coroner’s Office will conduct further investigation to determine the cause and manner of this death.
It’s unclear what Powers was arrested for or what potential charges he faced.
If you or someone you know needs mental health support, dial 988 or visit www.988lifeline.org any time or day.
I hope this is a big issue. How the heck did someone get out in order to jump? Too many jail deaths in our system. Should an independent party investigate?
My condolences to his loved ones and friends. RIP
The accident happened inside the jail where there is a balcony area along an inside hallway area about 25ft above the first floor. No one “escaped”
Oh, of course! Thanks for clarifying that.
There’s been at least one scathing grand jury report about the Sheriff and the Jail. There are a lot of issues there but Sheriff Brown refuses to acknowledge any of the suggested changes.
Here are some grand jury reports:
https://sbcgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/SuicideSBJail.pdf
https://sbcgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/A-Death-In-Custody-Lessons-Learned.pdf
https://sbcgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Every-Death-In-Custody-Is-A-Failure.pdf
https://sbcgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/A-Vicious-Cycle-Incarceration-of-the-Severely-Mentally-Ill.pdf
thanks for the list of grand jury reports! Very interesting.
I wonder if he jumped or was assisted off that second floor.
What a weird thing to say, very insensitive.
what part is insensitive? he either jumped on his own volition or someone pushed him off.
See, when people are insensitive, they don’t sense that they are. Weird, too.
How high is the second floor; surprising that that is not mentioned.
How about the facts that the staff at the jails have been forced to work overtime for years and that they are burnt out. Was there enough staff on duty? Any malfunctioning equipment? What is the county doing to address the staffing issues being faced on a daily basis?
Maybe that explains all the stories I am hearing from a relative in the jail about crooked and abusive guards. Burn out is causing them to be chronically verbally and physically abusive. Hoping the grand jury investigates the issues surrounding the guards abuse of non-mentally ill inmates as well.
Anonymous – One of the best source’s for information about what is happening inside the jail are the inmates. Would the Grand Jury divide themselves into groups and make a contact with all inmates in an attempt to gather “inside” information about issues you identify? No doubt this would be time consuming. With all inmates being contacted, no single inmate can be identified as providing information. By law the Grand Jury is required to investigate the jail and I believe they can investigate as they see fit. Question is, can they independently contact/interview inmates? Names of inmates providing information can’t be identified as they must be kept confidential by the Grand Jury. This fact alone might help receiving information during contacts. It would probably help if your “relative” notified the Grand Jury of the information they have learned. Again, all information is confidential.
Yes a grand jury investigation is likely the only fix. All inmates are allowed to film out complaint forms but they soon discover even the most mundane complaint (did not get dinner) leads to retaliation by the guards. The next day their cell gets searched and they lose visiting or commissary privileges for a month for a missing sock. They soon learn to take it.
Grand Jury is no fix. They’ve clearly stated issues with the jail, Sheriff’s dept. and coroner’s office within the sheriff’s dept. in the past and little has changed.
Let’s try this. Inmates are good at getting items/information they want (into) the jail. If they want to help get rid of the problem personnel and issues, it’s time for inmates to step up and have the needed information (complaints) moved (out) of the jail. One of the ways to do this could be through visitors on visiting day. I don’t believe visitor discussions in an open area are monitored close enough to actually hear most specifics of (all) discussions. The visitor is advised of the inmates complaint, the visitor then sends the information to the Grand Jury (anonymously). This is much better than trying to get the Grand Jury inside to talk to inmates and eliminates possible retaliation. This is one time where inmates probably would not mind “snitching.” They will likely enjoy “snitching” on all personnel involved in wrongdoing inside the jail. Inmates should avoid BS complaints as this will diminish the “credibility” of all complaints. If the inmates get together and do something like this, jail employees involved in wrongdoing might just clean up their act. The Grand Jury can decide whether or not to act on the information they have received. Give the Grand Jury names of jail personnel they believe acted improperly against an inmate, describe the action and date and time of each incident. This is a lot to give one visitor but inmates will find a way to put it together to ensure all information related to an incident is reported to someone outside.
The basic problem which has existed for decades is the failure of the Board of Supervisors to fund mental health beds in the county. While not knowing what motivated this man, the history is that the jail has seen the deaths of MANY inmates with mental health issues. Most of these inmates are put in the jail because the County Behavioral Wellness and its predecessors has resisted adding locked care beds and acquiesced to the funding of inadequate and oxymoronic mental health staff in the jail. The BOS has gone along to avoid a turn fight with the Sheriff who always wants more empire. This is the price we pay.