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# Julia Reeves Santa Monica Drunks should stay tanked in jail
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/julia-reeves-santa-monica-drunks-should-stay-tanked-in-jail-editor/
- Published: 2003-11-01T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:09:25.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pico, #archive-import, Homeless

*By Kathryn Morea Santa Monica*

I noticed the City Council agenda for Oct. 28 mentions a “sobering center.” I first got word of a proposed drunk tank, or sobering center, on June 26, when Capt. Bruce Davis addressed the Chamber of Commerce with the idea of installing a drunk tank at the CLARE facility on Ninth Street and Pico Boulevard. The plan was to reduce police-paramedic costs by placing chronic public drunks into a residential facility on my street instead of taking them to jail.

I was appalled. It doesn’t make it any more palatable that these are chronic public drunks, not simply someone who has never done this before, but someone who repeatedly gets drunk in public.

“Public drunks are a danger to the community,” Davis said. In bold print on the fact sheet that he handed out, Davis stresses that “public drunks are a danger to the community.” Yet, he proposes putting all of those public drunks into my neighborhood, with absolutely no security measures to ensure the safety of our homes and families. Is our street not part of the “community”?

Now I read that the homeless services review will address public inebriation: “Staff, from several city departments, will assess the viability of services to address public inebriation and related community concerns. Proponents of a sobering center concept suggest that it could help homeless people with substance abuse problems access recovery and other services needed to facilitate a transition to housing and self-sufficiency, while reducing the time that police and paramedics spend on homeless calls. Staff will research the impact of public inebriates in Santa Monica as well as best practices, possible funding sources for addressing the issue and site locations that minimize community impacts.”

Wasn’t the sobering center aimed at chronic public inebriates? A plan to keep them out of jail and rescue them, at least for a couple hours, so they could suddenly embrace sobriety?

How did we get from there to the homeless? Are the plans now aimed at not only those who are drunk, but those who are homeless as well? Isn’t that a big leap?

We have a beautiful new facility to house the Santa Monica police and fire departments. Our new jail, with an ample-sized drunk tank exists inside the new facility, in addition to safe, padded cells. This seems a far better location than dumping all of Santa Monica’s addicts into a residential neighborhood.

To make an informed decision about the viability of a sobering center, I urge you to review the Isla Vista Board of Supervisors’ decision against placing a sobering center in Isla Vista.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 1, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)