Wellpath, the private health contractor providing healthcare treatment at Santa Barbara County’s jails at annual cost of $26 million, reported a dramatic increase — 68 percent — in the number of inmates enrolled in Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) for addiction issues in both county jails in the past year. MAT refers to treatments in which pharmaceuticals are used to help with recovery.
In 2024, Wellpath told the Board of Supervisors that the enrollment number was 726. In 2025, that number jumped to 1,216. This shift occurred after the supervisors amended the company’s contract a few years ago to pay $3.2 million for 21 additional staff at the jail. At that point, Wellpath had been in a state of perpetual noncompliance in meeting its contracted staffing levels.
In 2025, the jail reported four drug overdoses. The year before that, the number was 12, and the year before that, it was 21…