The Detention Center
Santa Cruz County Main Jail; Blaine Street Women's Facility; Rountree Medium Security Facility; Rehabilitation and Reentry Facility
- Operated bySanta Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner's Office — Corrections Bureau
- County publishes jail namesYes — four facilities named on the Corrections page
- Main Jail addressThe 2024 annual report lists 5200 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062; the county's PC 10008 death posting gives 259 Water St., Santa Cruz for the Main Jail booking area
- Total corrections capacity as published511, not including the Custody Alternatives Program (2024 annual report)
- Average persons in custody per day309 (2024 annual report)
- Rated capacity516 beds across 4 facilities
Source: Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner — Corrections · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
7/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✓Deaths in custody
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds511 total corrections capacity per the 2024 annual report. State rated capacity totals 516 — Main Jail 324, Rountree Facility 96, Rehabilitation and Reentry (R&R) Facility 64, Blaine Street Facility 32.
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Chris Clark
- Title as publishedSheriff-Coroner
- Also serves asCounty Coroner — the office states that as Coroner it 'investigates the cause of sudden or unexpected deaths'
- NoteThe same office operates the county's four correctional facilities through its Corrections Bureau
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Santa Cruz County Office of the Sheriff-Coroner — Our Agency · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Both were elected by the bench and took their positions effective January 1, 2026. The court's commissioners, who handle arraignment and bail calendars, are not named in that advisory.
Superior Court of California, County of Santa Cruz — Presiding Judge
- Jerry Bustos Vinluan III
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The Corrections page links a Jail Inmate Locator at jailviewer.co.santa-cruz.ca.us.
- The county publishes the BSCC inspection itself: the 2023-2024 cycle inspection was conducted October 3-6, 2023 and covered the Main Jail (BSCC #5280), Rountree Facility (#5300), Santa Cruz Superior Court Holding (#5325) and Watsonville Court Holding (#5345). It recorded noncompliance for cells lacking required desks and seats, insufficient dayroom square footage with triple bunks, inadequate shower/toilet/washbasin fixtures relative to bed capacity, and unsecured bunks in two Rountree housing areas. A Corrective Action Plan was submitted.
- The Sheriff-Coroner's 2025-26 adopted budget totals $114,555,125 in expenses across the Operations Bureau, Corrections Bureau and Court Security, including Main Jail $20.9M, Rountree $7.9M and Medical Services $11.9M.
- No PREA audit report for the county's facilities was located on any county site.
- Fees: the Corrections FAQ describes prepaid and collect calling and commissary access but publishes no phone rate, video visit rate or commissary price list.
- The county also publishes an Office of Inspector General annual report and OIG responses covering the Sheriff's Office.
- Five-member Board of Supervisors, elected by district.
What California law requires
Santa Cruz County posts a death-in-custody page.
Posts 7 of 7The page is here. There is no standing page titled 'AB 2761' or 'In-Custody Deaths'. The disclosures sit in the Sheriff's Media Releases archive as documents titled 'PC 10008 Information Release' and 'Update: PC 10008 Information Release'. The update posting carries all seven statutory elements (Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office; Santa Cruz County; Main Jail, Booking Holding Cell #3, 259 Water St.; White, male, 57; November 1, 2022; booked and awaiting arraignment; accident, recent fentanyl and methamphetamine use with opioid withdrawal). The most recent notice, an August 15, 2023 release on a death that occurred August 12, 2023, gives agency, county, facility and location and custodial status but omits race, gender and age, and lists manner and means as pending autopsy and toxicology.
- ✓The agency with custodial responsibility
- ✓The county where the death occurred
- ✓The facility — and where inside it
- ✓Race, gender and age
- ✓The date of death
- ✓Custodial status — awaiting arraignment, awaiting trial, or incarcerated
- ✓Manner and means of death
California Penal Code § 10008, enacted by AB 2761 and in force since January 2023, requires the agency with custodial responsibility to post these seven items on its own website within ten days of a death in custody, and to update them within thirty days if the facts change. California is the only state in the country with this duty. Checked 2026-08-23. This records what is published, nothing more.
The record
8 people have died in the Santa Cruz County jail since 2019.
Deaths: Texas Justice Initiative, the cleaned copy of the Texas Attorney General’s custodial death reports — the state’s own public index carries no cause of death and has not been refreshed since August 2025. Population: Texas Commission on Jail Standards monthly report. Counted, not estimated.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Santa Cruz County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
- Find your polling place and check your registration →
- Your county elections office →
- Register to vote in California →
The county elections office runs the polling place in Santa Cruz County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from the California Secretary of State and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered