Dozens of low level offenders released from Central Coast jails amid COVID-19 crisis

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) A California judicial court ruling temporarily eliminated bail for people arrested and charged with low-level offenses. It’s part of an effort to slow the influx of inmates and chances of a coronavirus outbreak in county jails.

“When you look at a jail with this virus it's much like a cruise ship: once it gets in there its really hard to get out,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim hart said.

As of Tuesday, no inmates at Central Coast county jails have tested positive for COVID-19.

The goal is to avoid what's happened in Chicago at Cook County Jail, where more than 300 inmates have contracted the virus.

“If this virus were to get into just one housing unit, we could overwhelm Dominican hospital in just a 24 hour period,” Hart said.

Over the weekend, the Monterey County Jail released 53 inmates as part of this new court ruling. Those released were booked on non-violent offenses.

Every inmate that has to quarantine for 14 days before they can be admitted to general population.

“We’ve set aside six units already in the facility right now to handle the quarantine for those new arrivals,” Monterey County Chief Deputy of Corrections Jim Bass said.

Monterey County Jail usually has a monthly intake of about 1,000 inmates, that’s now down to less than 400.

In Santa Cruz, the jail was at 120% capacity, which they’ve now dropped to about 60%.

“You can’t have a quarantine unit that has 20 beds with only two or three people in it without reducing your population,” Hart said.