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United States · California · San Luis Obispo

San Luis Obispo County Jail

County jailOvercrowded (101%)LowHigh
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit San Luis Obispo County Jail

Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit

San Luis Obispo County Jail is a county jail located in San Luis Obispo County, California. Rated capacity: 518. Reported population: 522. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.

Capacity

518

Current population

522

Occupancy

101%

Year opened

—

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

—

Region

California

Security level

—

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

conditions of confinement at the San Luis U.S.C. § 12132. We thank Jail leadership, administrators, and staff for accommodating our investigation and providing access to the Jail’s facilities, staff, documents, data, and prisoners. believe that conditions at the San Luis Obispo County Jail violate the Eighth and Fourteenth of prolonged restrictive housing under conditions that violate the constitutional rights of alleged conditions we have identified if Jail officials have not satisfactorily addressed them.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

We are obligated to advise you that 49 days after issuance of this letter and the enclosed letter and the Report of Investigation are public documents. They will be posted on the Civil If you have any questions regarding this correspondence, please call Steven H.

Practical info

prisoners; (2) failure to provide constitutionally adequate mental health care to prisoners; (3) use approach and look forward to working with the County to address the violations of law we have

Known issues

[doj-cripa 2021-01-01 — San Luis Obispo Jail (California)] Obispo County Jail (the Jail), conducted under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 believe that conditions at the San Luis Obispo County Jail violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically, we have reasonable cause to believe that the Jail violates the constitutional and statutory rights of prisoners by its: (1) failure to provide constitutionally adequate medical care to prisoners; (2) failure to provide constitutionally adequate mental health care to prisoners; (3) use of prolonged restrictive housing under conditions that violate the constitutional rights of prisoners with serious mental illness; (4) failure to prevent, detect, or correct use of excessive force that violates the constitutional rights of prisoners; and (5) denial of equal access to prisoners with disabilities in violation of the ADA. Report of Investigation, the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit under CRIPA to correct the approach and look forward to working with the County to address the violations of law we have Ruckert, Chief, Civil Rights Section, Civil Division, at the U.S.

Documented human-rights cases

Contact & address

1585 Kansas Avenue, San Luis Obispo 93405

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

10/100
Low concern10/100
Overcrowding
5/30
Oversight reports
0/30
Structural flags
5/15
Death signals
0/15
Conditions text
0/10

What the score is responding to:

  • · Operating at 101% of design capacity
  • · Substantial documented known-issues record

This facility scores 10. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 8 points above national average.

Related facilities

All in United States →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Compared to other facilities in United States

7436 peers
Conditions risk scorethis: 5/100 · peers avg: 2/100 (+116%)

Higher risk than 75% of peer facilities in United States.

Occupancythis: 101% · peers avg: 93% (+9%)
Capacity (beds)this: 518 · peers avg: 547 (5%)

Data completeness

84%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). San Luis Obispo County Jail. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/san-luis-obispo-county-jail
Chicago
"San Luis Obispo County Jail." World Prisons. Accessed October 23, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/san-luis-obispo-county-jail.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-san-luis-obispo-county-jail,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {San Luis Obispo County Jail},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/san-luis-obispo-county-jail},
  urldate = {2026-10-23}
}