County Approves $390 Million New Jail Despite Opposition

The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Jan. 25 in favor of the 500-inmate maximum security jail after speakers condemned the project for hours

On Tuesday, Jan. 25, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors voted to build a new jail after over a decade of discourse.

The vote followed nearly three hours of testimony from community members and advocates who disproportionately opposed the project. Of the 155 speakers, only 2 advocated for a new jail.

The Board of Supervisors has considered a new jail for more than a decade due to inhumane conditions at the Santa Clara Main Jail and the Elmwood Correctional Facility.

A previous vote on the jail, which was set to be made in Nov. 2021, was delayed after Supervisor Susan Ellenberg requested a deferral on the decision. She said that a report on the jail did not include specific information that the board requested regarding alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness, according to the San Jose Spotlight.

Many suggested that the county should seek to invest in mental health resources rather than construct a new jail.

“Many of these people in jail have mental health needs,” said Rita Giles, an attorney and member of Bend the Arc. “Continuing to warehouse them is a failed response to people coping with mental illness and substance abuse. They deserve support and treatment, not incarceration.”

Joanna Xing, a staff attorney with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, echoed Giles’ concerns.

“It's clear that jail is not a source for rehabilitation, but instead exacerbates racial inequities, housing instability, employment loss and trauma,” she said. “The county should instead further invest in community based resources, such as the mobile crisis response team, permanent supportive housing and voluntary outpatient services.”

Despite this fierce opposition, the board subsequently voted 3-2 to construct the jail.

President of the Board of Supervisors, Mike Wasserman, who voted in favor of the new jail, explained the need for a jail that adheres to the Americans with Disabilities Act and seismic standards. A new jail would also prevent inmates from being sent to facilities in other countries that may be inhumane.

“One of the most important things to help people in jail rehabilitate is access to family…if a person from Santa Clara county is held in a jail in Fresno county, that's going to greatly reduce the opportunity for a spouse or children to visit their family member,” said Wasserman.

Santa Clara junior Clare MacMillan, who became familiar with the jail project through activist groups like B.L.A.C.K. Outreach San Jose and Silicon Valley De-Bug, believes that the county should invest resources in social programs instead of funding the new jail.

“It doesn’t really do anything to acknowledge the systemic roots of why [crime] is happening in the first place,” she told The Santa Clara. “We need to be looking towards more of a culture of care, and how we can stop crime from happening in the first place.”

Activist groups remain undeterred by the decision. According to the local advocacy group Showing Up For Racial Justice “SURJ at Sacred Heart,” Sacramento County had already broken ground on a new jail when the Board of Supervisors changed their decision.

“Even though they did vote no, it doesn’t mean that it's over yet…there will at least be an effort, or some sort of protest to pressure the supervisors into doing a revote,” MacMillan said.