Contra Costa sheriff’s jail plan hits resistance in Richmond

A plan by the Contra Costa County sheriff to expand the jail in Richmond is running into opposition from Richmond city officials and at least one county supervisor who fear it’s a ploy to lock up more people, or to burden their city with housing most of the county’s jail inmates.

[...] Sheriff David Livingston, who is vying for an $80 million state grant to add 416 beds — and a slew of amenities — to Richmond’s West County Detention Facility, says that new construction doesn’t mean an influx of new inmates.

Livingston has pitched the plan as a means to alleviate overcrowding in the high-security Martinez Detention Facility, and has promised to shut down two housing units in Martinez after moving the inmates over to the medium-security jail in Richmond.

“They’re calling it a ‘mental health services and re-entry center’ — which is an interesting way to sell a jail,” said Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus.

Lipetzky supports the current proposal, arguing that it would provide better living conditions for inmates who are currently stuck in the decaying Martinez facility, which was built in 1978 with a capacity to house 345 people — far less than the 650 currently jailed there.



Because it’s a high-security building, Martinez holds most of the county’s mentally ill inmates, along with others whose gang ties or sexual orientation keep them from fitting in with the general population.

[...] others, like Butt, believe the expansion’s stated premise — to add social programs and improve the lives of inmates — could just be an excuse to shuttle the county’s jail population into Richmond.

Magnus, too, worried that an expansion would open the door for the county to increase its inmate population, possibly by renting beds to federal agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Schuler noted that the timing of the sheriff’s pitch isn’t good, since it coincides with the shuttering of Doctors Medical Center, a public hospital in San Pablo that served low-income residents.

Opponents of the jail renovation cited the hospital closure at public meetings, asking why the county wanted to throw taxpayer money at a jail, instead of building a new hospital.

“Folks are not able to wrap their heads around the fact that the money is earmarked for jail construction,” Schuler said, noting that the grant — which stems from a 2014 law that set aside $500 million for prison building throughout the state —can’t be repurposed for a different social service.