Swine Plant at Jail in Ojai Being Closed

A changing jail population is forcing closure of the largest swine production facility in Southern California, situated at the Branch Jail Honor Farm.

The honor farm supplies more than 150 tons of pork to the county’s jails each year.

“It’s been harder to justify the expense of the [livestock] program compared to the benefit we were getting out of it,” Sheriff Bob Brooks said.

Brooks said it’s cheaper to buy pork on the open market than to produce it on its own farm, but he said that’s not the reason the facility is being shut down. Instead, he cited the growing number of women being sent to jail. Brooks said the female inmate population has been increasing faster than the men’s for about a decade.

“We can accommodate what we have, but we have absolutely no room for expansion,” he said.

Closing the swine farm will allow the Sheriff’s Department to transfer all the male inmates out of the Branch Jail facility and convert it into a female-only jail.

Rather than freeing up space for women at other facilities that also house men, the department found it would be more cost-effective to house the women in a facility of their own.

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Currently, 140 men and more than 200 women are housed at the 412-bed, minimum-security Branch Jail facility. The changeover will occur within six to eight months, Brooks said.

The male inmates will be transferred to the Sheriff’s Department’s Todd Road facility, a working lemon orchard in Santa Paula.

Closing the Branch facility will end the production of pork and beef at the honor farm for the county’s jails. Brooks said the livestock program is no longer cost-efficient.

“Even with our advantage of free labor up there, it still doesn’t pencil out for us,” Brooks said.

The decision to move men from Branch Jail and end the livestock program came after about a year of study, he said. A more specific timeline for phasing out the program is expected to be completed in the next month.

“It will be a gradual transition for us,” he said.

Brooks said staffing at the honor farm will not change dramatically. He said some employees may be transferred to other facilities or be brought in from elsewhere.

There will also be renovations at Branch Jail once the men have moved out.

Because the decision was made to move men from Branch Jail, the livestock program also had to be ended, in part because few women worked in the program’s breeding, animal management and slaughtering operations. Also, Brooks said, the program was no longer accomplishing the department’s goal of training inmates for employment upon their release, because farming jobs are in less demand today.

“We certainly want the inmates to have something to do, but the real goal is to give them employable skills when they get out of jail,” he said.

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Brooks said the farm will continue some of its row crop production and may start a horticulture program.

In addition to cost savings at the Branch jail, the Todd Road facility will save money by having more inmates available to work in the lemon orchard. Currently, Todd Road must hire--and pay--some of its workers.