Push on to replace county jail project with treatment facility
SAN JOSE >> Backed by the passionate urging of South Bay criminal justice reform advocates, Santa Clara County leaders are moving ahead to replace a five-yearsin-the-making jail project with a rehabilitation center focused on mental health treatment and gave themselves a 10-month deadline to come up with a concrete plan for the facility.
From now to September 2021, the board of supervisors is aiming to commission feasibility studies, revise an in-progress bidding process, rework a federal consent decree and meet with residents and community leaders to shape the vision for the new proposal.
A unanimous 5-0 vote by the supervisors Nov. 17 was a continuation of plans they signaled in October to rethink the $390 million replacement for Main Jail South — which was demolished over the summer — amid an intense national movement for police and criminal justice reform galvanized by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and numerous demonstrations in the ensuing weeks and months.
The supervisors also were emboldened by an unplanned jail depopulation experiment conducted statewide in which special amnesty and court-induced measures, to keep low-level arrestees out of jail to relieve crowding and stem COVID-19 outbreak risks, did not yield significant increases in crime.
“This is a moment of pride for those of us who have been fighting against incarceration since Michael
Tyree’s murder and through three hunger strikes,” reads a statement from Jose Valle II, an organizer for Silicon Valley De-Bug who has focused on improving inmates’ rights and conditions. “It is an acknowledgement that building a jail is not a solution to the harm of incarceration, does not address our communities and our county can and must do better.”
Valle was referring to Michael Tyree, a mentally ill county inmate whose 2015 beating death while in custody led to murder convictions for three jail deputies. It prompted the creation of a board-appointed, blue-ribbon commission that recommended scores of jail reforms.
In a statement, Tyree’s sister, Shannon Tyree, said, “Having mental health support for people like Michael, instead of a jail, will change lives. It could have saved Michael.”
Plans for seeking residents’ input are pending, but Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said Tuesday that it is “critical we engage the community and stakeholders” in shaping the new facility. Board President Cindy Chavez added that those talks need to more closely resemble the civilian-led blue-ribbon commission that came up with jail reforms, rather than committee meetings led by the county.
For years, local activists pleaded with the supervisors to change their minds about the new jail, even as it was touted to be a state-ofthe-art facility geared more heavily toward rehabilitative programming and transitional services. Their main argument was essentially summed up thusly: It’s still a jail, and it maintains the troubling response of incarceration to problems often fueled by mental illness and drug abuse and addiction.
“The premise that jails can be improved is not the starting point we should accept,” said the Rev. Peggy Bryan of St. Andrews Episcopal Church during public comment Nov. 17. “Jails are neither redeemable nor reformable.”
The next 10 months look to be packed if the supervisors hope to reach their selfimposed deadline for next fall. Both the reform advocates and several board members — led in part by outgoing Supervisor Dave Cortese, now poised to join the state Senate — balked at a finding in a county administration report recommending that the existing jail project go forward. As currently planned, the new Main Jail South would be a 535-bed facility on North San Pedro Street set to open in 2024.
An ensuing discussion Nov. 17 attempted to inject some nuance into that finding, with County Executive Jeff Smith telling the board that proposal, approval and bidding processes are years-long endeavors that would mean that inmates would be held at substandard facilities for several more years while those processes are restarted. Instead of scrapping that work, he suggested that the supervisors essentially retrofit the current project parameters with a series of change orders that ultimately still would result in the treatment facility they’re envisioning.
Additionally, the county would need to revisit a federal consent decree over disability accommodations that was predicated on the building of the new jail.
SAN JOSE >> A development team with a global and local reach have filed proposals for at least three large projects that would help spur a dramatic transformation of key sections of downtown San Jose.
New offices, retail, restaurants, and housing would be added to downtown San Jose — along with a revamp of the historic Bank of Italy tower — as a result of proposals by a venture of Bay Area developer Gary Dillabough and Canada-based Westbank, which has achieved worldwide acclaim under the leadership of its founder Ian Gillespie.
The new projects would occur at the Davidson office building site near the interchange of State Route 87 and West Julian Street, on a surface parking lot next to Fountain Alley between South First Street and South Second Street, and the old Bo Town property at South Second Street and East San Fernando Street, according to documents on file with San Jose city planners.
“Great cities must embrace the imagination of visionaries like Ian Gillespie and Gary Dillabough,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said Thursday. “These development projects provide long-overdue attention to great architecture in our city center that will make our community proud and lend distinction to our skyline.”
Separately, the Westbank-Dillabough group also control the choice Valley Title lot near the corner of South Second Street and East San Carlos Street, which means another major proposal is likely in the works for that large property.
The most recent filings from the Westbank-Dillabough venture sketch out dramatic plans for three downtown San Jose sites:
• Fountain Alley. 35 S. Second St. Office, retail, and restaurant space totaling 437,900 square feet. A residential element would create 194 housing units.
• Bo Town property. 409 S. Second St. and 425 S. Second St. The project would create 520 housing units. Retail and restaurant space on the ground floor would total about 5,300 square feet.
• Davidson Building site. 255 W. Julian St. The existing six-story Davidson building would be retained. A new office and retail building would be constructed next to it, totaling 512,000 square feet.
The new office building would be 14 stories high and connect to the existing Davidson building through an underground tunnel and through a pedestrian bridge that would link the rooftop of the existing building and the sixth floor of the new office building.
Ground-level paseos are planned that will have access to the lobbies of both buildings, the planning documents show.
Ground floor retail is being planned in the new office building and at the street level of the existing Davidson building, which is named after legendary developer and construction executive Charles Davidson.
The project includes multiple elevated landscape terraces at various heights, as well as roof terraces on both buildings, according to the plans.
“The Westbank and Dillabough proposals all have a commitment to groundfloor activation, sustainability, and architecture that downtown needs more of,” said Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association.
The development venture has picked an array of locations for its first round of projects: the northern edge of the downtown; the South First Area, or SoFA district; and the traditional