Santa Rita Jail is run by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and holds roughly 2,000 detainees on any given day, making it one of the largest jails in the country. The jail’s treatment of people with mental disabilities was at the core of the class action lawsuit—Babu v. Ahern—and the practice of locking people in isolation for long periods of time has drawn outcry from attorneys and activists.
Fixin' San Mateo County (FxSMC) is a local grassroots organization working to enact meaningful civilian oversight of the county Sheriff's Office.