EARLY RELEASES SLATED TO EASE CROWDING

GOLETA - A plan is being formulated to allow early release of some
prisoners from the Santa Barbara County main jail to relieve overcrowding.

No prisoners have yet received an early release, stressed sheriff's
spokesman Sgt. Mike Burridge.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge William Gordon last week approved
a request from Sheriff Jim Thomas to allow the releases.

Overcrowding is blamed for two jail breaks this year. In March, two men
being held before trial for first-degree murder escaped, hijacked a
vehicle, and earned themselves about an hour of freedom.

Both a Santa Barbara County grand jury and a correctional officers
oversight committee have recommended early release as one answer to relieve
overcrowding.

Plans for a second jail in the Santa Maria Valley are on the drawing board,
but it will be several years before even the first phase of this jail is
built.

Funds have been allotted to purchase property and a site off Black Road
near West Betteravia Road is now being considered, Burridge said.

A specific plan that spells out just who can be released and when must be
completed, Burridge said. Work is now under way, but it could be several
more weeks before it is put into effect, he explained.

The problem, he said, was that no "criteria on who could be released early"
had been created prior to the judge's action.

Gordon put a specific cap on the number of prisoners allowed in the facility.

When this cap is exceeded, other alternatives could be used, Burridge said.
This could include an increase in electronic monitoring or expansion of the
sheriff's work alternative programs.

The small sheriff's substation jail in Santa Maria is only used to house
recently apprehended suspects or those in a special work release program.
Occasionally a prisoner is held overnight during a trial in the Santa Maria
court.

However, most prisoners who must appear in the Santa Maria court travel
daily from the main jail in Goleta.