The only sunlight that penetrates the concrete walls of Santa Cruz County Main Jail seeps past a ceiling of barbed wire and metal into the exercise yard. If they’re lucky and the weather is just right, incarcerated people in the general population can spend at least three hours per week in this “outdoor space.” The rest of their time is spent mostly in a gray, concrete housing unit.
For inmates at the Santa Cruz County Main Jail, this is life awaiting trial or serving their sentence.
Jails are short-term holding facilities for individuals awaiting trial, while prisons are long-term incarceration facilities for people sentenced and convicted of their crimes. In 2011, California Assembly Bill 109 was passed, allowing individuals convicted of nonviolent and non-serious crimes or non-high-risk sex offenses to be housed in county jails instead of prisons. As a result, Santa Cruz County Main Jail houses both pre-trial detainees and people who have been sentenced.
Addressing the issues of the aging facility has been a drawn-out process. Leaders from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office spearheaded discussions with the county administrator’s office on the construction of a new Main Jail, estimated to cost up to $200 million. In the meantime, incarcerated people are forced to live in the jail’s current condition, described as “unbearable” and “dungeon-like.”
“Things like programming space […], yard space for direct sunlight, and room for future growth weren’t taken into consideration,” Sheriff Jim Hart said, referring to the jail’s original construction. “Obviously, our county has grown over the last four or five decades and we just got stuck with [this] facility.”
In November 2023, a hunger strike in the Main Jail highlighted poor conditions bubbling under the surface for decades, including expensive commissary goods and prolonged stays in isolated cells.
“Hunger strikes are one of the ways that incarcerated persons can draw attention to mistreatment, to deplorable conditions, to dehumanization and violation of their rights in the absence of really any other alternatives,” said psychologist, lawyer, and UC Santa Cruz professor Craig Haney, who studies solitary confinement in super-maximum security prisons.
Santa Cruz Main Jail has seen three hunger strikes since 2013.
– 2013: 37 people in Santa Cruz Main Jail went on strike with 30,000 California state prisoners, which ended indefinite solitary confinement in California and allowed monitoring of the California Prison System to confirm compliance.
– 2019: 90 inmates went on strike, protesting unaffordable commissary prices and requesting additional clothing. The action resulted in the price of 20 items being lowered.
– 2023: Nine people went on strike on Nov. 8 to protest conditions within the jail. Jason Cortez, one of the individuals on strike, sent a letter to Lookout Local on Dec. 3 outlining what he described as “constitutional violations.” The strike ended shortly after the letter was published.
Living is Costly, Even Within Jails
When someone is booked into Santa Cruz Main Jail, they’re set up with an inmate trust account that can only be spent on commissary items. Initially, the account is funded with cash found on the individual at the time of their arrest and can be added to by parties outside of the jail through Access Corrections.
Access Corrections is a company that electronically provides services to incarcerated people, such as opening a commissary account. It’s owned by Keefe Group, which holds the Main Jail contracts for commissary and other services.
Incarcerated people can access their trust accounts on electronic tablets provided by the jail, where they can purchase items like snacks and apparel and communicate with legal counsel free of charge. Inmates are also expected to maintain personal hygiene by utilizing items purchased through the commissary.
While the law states prices of commissary goods and services are supposed to reflect local prices, they are often marked up by private companies who hold contracts with the facility. In state prisons, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation prices canteen goods 65 percent above market rate.
“There are large corporations that are making enormous amounts of money servicing jails and prisons with commercial products where the profit margin, the upcharge if you will, is staggering,” Haney said.
People held within the Main Jail had previously spoken out against expensive commissary goods and the unexplained raising of prices. Both the 2019 and 2023 hunger strikes included lower prices in their lists of demands.
“Is it more than what you might pay on the street? Probably,” Chief Deputy Freitas said. “There’s always going to be complaints about the prices unless they’re free.”
For incarcerated people who were financially struggling before being put in jail, inaccessible commissary prices add further strain on their experience.
Intoxicated incarcerated people will be placed in a sobering cell (left). Violent or suicidal incarcerated people may be placed in a safety cell (right). Jail staff conduct a safety check every 15 minutes, and medical staff assess the person’s condition every six hours. Courtesy photo by Ashley Keehn.
“Money is hard to come by — our only way of getting it is if our loved ones put money in our accounts,” said Jason Cortez in an opinion article submitted to Lookout Santa Cruz. “They have troubles and struggles of their own, so many of us — even though we are not guilty of anything yet — have nothing.”
Phone and video calls and letter-writing materials are considered commissary goods, as they require purchase through funds from the inmate’s account. Video calls cost $7.50 per hour, and sending an email costs $0.50.
With a facility already struggling to meet the mental health needs of inmates, contact with loved ones on the outside can make all the difference.
“People who are incarcerated need to have a lifeline to the outside world […] so their ability to talk with their spouses or partners or their children is critical,” Haney said. “Any barrier placed on contact with friends and loved ones in the outside world is a barrier to mental health.”
Courtesy photo by Ashley Keehn.
Isolation within Isolation: Administrative Separation and Its Concerns
The Facility Manager or the Sergeant can immediately place an incarcerated person in ad-sep if the person is deemed a danger to themselves or others within the facility, or for health reasons that require isolation. The mental health team assesses the people placed in ad-sep three times a week, and the Classification Unit meets weekly to determine whether separation is still justified. Currently, there are upwards of 30 people in the Santa Cruz Main Jail in ad-sep.
Ad-sep is the physical separation of an incarcerated person from the general jail population and is a new terminology used in the Main Jail. The physical separation was previously referred to as administrative segregation.
Incarcerated individuals in and out of ad-sep are provided a minimum of three hours of exercise and seven hours of recreation time per week. However, while the general population has access to recreation and exercise throughout the day, seven days a week, incarcerated people in ad-sep do not have the same liberty.
“If somebody is on administrative separation, they typically get a very limited amount of time outside of their cell every day, and that time usually comes at whatever time works on the jail schedule,” said Santa Cruz Public Defender Heather Rogers. “I’ve had clients who get an hour out in the middle of the night and that’s when they’re supposed to do their recreational time or contact their family members.”
People in ad-sep are separated from other inmates, which means they have limited human interaction for long periods of time. This can lead to mental health problems, and separated people reportedly suffer from anxiety, insomnia, paranoia, aggression, and depression.
“There are high rates of suicide in solitary confinement or administrative segregation units — much higher than anywhere else in jails,” Craig Haney said. “If you look at where people are housed when they attempt or successfully commit suicide, they are disproportionately in administrative segregation or solitary confinement units.”
In regards to ad-sep and solitary confinement conditions, legislators have fought for years to pass legal improvements. For instance, California Assembly Bill 280 is making its way across committees, proposing 15 consecutive days or 20 days total to confinement in any 60-day period.
As discussions regarding a new jail persist, county officials and representatives work to address shortcomings and humanitarian concerns. Meanwhile, the individuals housed inside the Main Jail continue to protect their well-being, trying to be heard through the barbed wire and guarded doors.
“It’s important to understand how difficult it is to let people know on the outside what’s really happening on the inside,” UCSC associate politics professor Anjuli Verma said. “Any time we hear someone who’s incarcerated say that the conditions are abusive, or say that these conditions are unfair, we ought to believe them.”
Editor’s Note: Representatives of City on a Hill Press toured Santa Cruz County Main Jail on Jan. 31, guided by Chief Deputy Daniel Freitas. City on a Hill Press was not allowed a photographer or audio recordings within the jail.
Additional reporting by Keith Gelderloos, Mia Pabros, and Sofia Ruster
