County supes and sheriff face off over visiting inmates via video.

When it comes to visiting inmates in the county jail, seeing them via a video monitor won’t cut it. That’s the bottom line for the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, who let Sheriff Steve Bernal know they’ll hold up approving jail expansion construction until he develops a plan to allow for in-person visits.

The sheriff asked the supervisors on April 11 to approve the latest plan for the $88.9 million expansion, providing 576 additional beds in the overcrowded jail. Bernal’s office had already received approval from California Board of State and Community Corrections and sent out a call for construction bids, with a deadline of May 4 for contractors to reply. But no construction bids can be awarded without the supervisors’ approval.

Despite dire predictions from Bernal’s representatives that delaying approval could hold up construction for three years, the board, led by supervisors Jane Parker and Luis Alejo, refused to approve the project. Instead, they voted 4-1 to order an independent review of Bernal’s plan.

The main sticking points: Bernal claims in-person visits are too dangerous during construction. Even once the expansion is complete, he says they would require more staffing – and thus more money.

Bernal has compromised, but Parker is still not convinced it’s a reasonable plan. “The potential stress on the community and Sheriff’s Office if we do not have a facility designed for all visitation options could be intense and expensive,” she writes by email. “We need to deal with this now, before it becomes a major community, logistical and budgetary problem.”