The County Board of Supervisor may have given Sheriff Bill Brown the green light to collect $39 million in state grant funding that's been earmarked to help with an expansion at the Santa Barbara County Jail, Brown says it's still too soon to predict just how much that project will cost.

As it stands, he's tossed out what he calls a "best estimate" in terms of what operational, staffing and other related costs will look like.

But there's no guarantee that figure won't change in the future.

The expansion, which will be geared toward reducing recividism, will provide transitional housing for nearly 230 inmates, he said, and the wing will be just over 52,200 square feet in size.

Once built, it will provide reading lessons, educational opportunities and inmates will even have the chance to earn additional recreational and visitation time with loved ones.

Brown estimates he'll need 26 deputies to staff the wing, he said, more than 20 of which can be transferred from the existing County Jail.  Only five new people will need to be hired, and if all goes well, the annual cost to run it will total about $18 million per year.

What's interesting, though, is the new figure is more than $500,000 more than what he predicted just last month.

Sure, he'll be looking into ways to reduce that cost, but for now, he's equated coming up with an accurate prediction as trying to hit a moving target.

The supervisors have said they understand it will be hard to put actual numbers to paper until a schematic design is drawn up.

Read the full story here:  Jail funding a 'Moving Target'?