The Santa Barbara County Jail was fully staffed with correctional officers and medical professionals on November 8 when Cecilia Michelle Covarrubias, 41, died in an apparent suicide by hanging herself in an observational isolation holding cell located within the Inmate Reception Area.
While the circumstances of Covarrubias’s death remain the focus of an ongoing investigation, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Raquel Zick stated, “The shift was fully staffed with Custody Deputies and Wellpath [the private contractor that provides medical treatment in the jail] was fully staffed during this incident.” Zick added that Wellpath had filled 12 of the 16 positions newly authorized by the Board of Supervisors this past summer to get the company’s jail staffing levels up to where they needed to.
Covarrubias’s death is the first and only jail death to date this year. Covarrubias was arrested earlier this month in Buellton for driving under the influence; she reportedly needed to be given Narcan to counter the effects of a fentanyl overdose. She was also charged with evading a police officer with willful disregard for his safety after Covarrubias’s vehicle made contact with the arresting officer’s. She was booked in county jail on $75,000 bail.
Covarrubias’s prior arrests date back to 2004, when she was charged with two felonies and six misdemeanors in Lompoc for “DUI causing injury.” She was sentenced to 60 days in jail and five years on probation. In 2009, she was sentenced to 100 days for violating her terms of probation on two occasions. In 2008, she was fined $370 for urinating and defecating in public while being in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, then still an illegal substance.
Covarrubias’s death has raised concern how someone placed in a special observation cell could have died by suicide. Given longstanding concerns about staffing levels in the jail — whether there were enough deputies and medical personnel on hand at the time — that was one line of natural inquiry.
