By Lyz Hoffman
The Independent
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — For most people, the jail ride program goes unseen, occurring only in the dark of night. Peter Marin, one of its leaders, wants to bring it to light. Since Marin’s organization, the Committee for Social Justice (CSJ), took over the program a few years ago, a confluence of factors — an increased jail population, a consequentially busier jail staff, and tough economic times — have conspired to bring major change.
The ride service provides Santa Barbara County Jail inmates who are released late at night or early in the morning with a free taxi to the Salvation Army, the Rescue Mission, the downtown transit center, St. Athanasius Orthodox Church in Isla Vista, or to Carpinteria. As it stands now, CSJ reimburses the cab company — RockStar Transportation — through its relatively small cache of private donations. But as the number of people getting rides is increasing at the same time that one of CSJ’s main donors is demanding that the government shoulder the ride costs, the program is in jeopardy, Marin said. Without help, he said he doesn’t see it lasting past winter. “We can’t keep doing this indefinitely, and we can’t stop because then there’ll be no rides,” Marin said. “I’m personally stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
Chief Deputy Lazaro Salinas, who supervises the jail’s custody operations, said that staff members are aware of people’s problems with late releases, but the way the system works now, they can’t always be avoided. “We’re cognizant of some of the issues involved in releasing people late at night,” Salinas said, citing safety concerns given the darkness and the seven-mile trek from the jail into town. Still, he said, “We’re up against the clock and judges’ orders.”
Full story: Jail taxi hits the skids