The Alameda County Board of Supervisors, at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, April 21, will consider a request from Alameda County Sheriff Gregory J. Ahern for an additional $255 million over the next three years for the stated purpose of increasing staffing at the Alameda County Santa Rita Jail in Dublin despite the continuing decrease in the jail population. This is precisely the wrong way to spend County money, especially during the pandemic. Rather than giving the Sheriff more money for fewer prisoners, the Board of Supervisors should recognize that COVID-19 is spreading exponentially at the jail where the rate of diagnosed inmates per capita is 14 times the rate of recorded positive cases in Alameda County as a whole.

Instead, there is an urgent need to release as many inmates as possible and to fund healthcare, housing, and reentry programs, not more incarceration. Please call or email the Board of Supervisors, urging them to reject the Sheriff’s request for additional funds. It is particularly important to contact Supervisor Richard Valle from southern Alameda County, in addition to your Supervisor. If you have friends who live in Valle’s Second Supervisorial District (the cities of Hayward, Newark, and Union City; the northern portion of the city of Fremont; and a portion of the unincorporated community of Sunol), please pass this email to them.

Contact your member of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors below:

1. Supervisor Scott Haggerty
2. Supervisor Richard Valle
3. Supervisor Wilma Chan
4. Supervisor Nate Miley
5. Supervisor Keith Carson

Not sure who your County Supervisor is? You can look up which district you live in here. You can also sign up to give public comment at the meeting, which will be live-streamed.  Instructions for participating in the live stream are here.