San Diego County plans $950 million replacement of aging Vista jail to improve safety

San Diego County’s oldest detention center, constructed in 1972 and expanded in the 1980s, is slated for a $950 million replacement that could take a decade to complete. County leaders approved the project as part of a broader capital-projects plan, allocating roughly $3 million this fiscal year for planning and environmental review, while the rest of the funding will be phased in accordance with a five-year budgeting framework.

Deputies and medical staff have highlighted cramped intake areas, inadequate medical observation spaces, obsolete communications equipment and non-ADA-compliant design as factors that jeopardize inmate health and safety. Over the past two decades the county’s jails have recorded more than 250 in-custody deaths, with Vista’s death rate at 4.5 per 1,000 person-years and the downtown Central Jail at 8.3 per 1,000, far above rates at other local facilities. Officials argue that modernizing the facility is critical to preserving recent reductions in deaths, which they attribute to policy reforms, expanded medical screening at intake, and increased mental-health resources.