When San Diego County replaced its aging women’s jail in Santee more than a decade ago, officials leaned toward an emerging concept in local corrections. The new jail would focus on reentry — the idea that people in custody should spend their time behind bars preparing for life on the outside ra ther than merely staying put. That meant developing an open-concept lockup, with housing modules spread across dozens of acres, gardens for cultivating vegetables so women could learn culinary skills, a modern laundry facility and plenty of space for classes and vocational training. The Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility opened in 2014 on 45 acres off Riverview Parkway, just north of state Route 52. The county’s only all-women jail, Las Colinas serves as the primary booking and housing site for women arrested across the county. Women can still be booked into the Vista jail but are typically transferred to Las Colinas within 24 hours. The complex was designed to house up to 1,280 women of every level of behavior, from drunk drivers and probation violators to suspects accused of murder and other violent crimes. Now, as the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office pushes to rebuild the Vista Detention Facility — its nearly 50-year-old men’s jail in North County that officials say is becoming impossible to maintain — Las Colinas has become the department’s primary proof of concept. Sheriff’s leaders describe Las Colinas as one of the most forward-looking jails in California and a model for what they hope to build next: a facility where rehabilitation and reentry, rather than simply locking people up, are the priority. Cpl. Angelic Ordonez leads a tour of one of the open modules at the Las Colinas women’s jail on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune) “We need something that’s new, much like when the Las Colinas jail was replaced 10 years ago,” Cmdr. Chris Lawrence, who oversees county jail facilities for the Sheriff’s Office, said in a recent interview. “I would argue that our ladies that visit us in custody are doing vastly better than they were before that time.” Sheriff’s officials argue that without a new facility, Vista will consume millions of dollars in emergency repairs while holding people in spaces that limit programming and care. “If we don’t get the OK, then we continue in the same space,” Lawrence said. “We continue using an old jail that we will have to keep reinvesting in.” The county has been in this position before. Nearly two decades ago, members of the San Diego County Grand Jury walked into the old Las Colinas jail and came away “surprised and appalled.” Buildings were in “disgraceful condition,” they wrote in a report titled “Replace Las Colinas Now!!” The kitchen floor was caving in. Living conditions were only “borderline humane.” The jail’s capacity was 400, yet it often housed nearly 700 women. That same report would later be cited by the county as it sought state funding to build an entirely new jail — one that would look nothing like its predecessor. A plan submitted to the state in a bid to secure $100 million in funding — for a project that would ultimately cost $268 million — framed the new Las Colinas as a campus built around opportunities that weren’t available in the current jail, “with the aim of improving the chances that re-offending will not occur following release.” Today, the sprawling Las Colinas campus consists of 25 low-rise buildings arranged around landscaped walkways and a central quad. There are a small outdoor amphitheater, garden plots and lots of seating areas. The large visiting room has a patio and includes toys and a play area for kids. Women who are classified as a low security risk, both convicted and awaiting trial, live in an open, dormitory-style setting where cubicle-like spaces are separated by walls no higher than 5 feet. They also have community rooms to socialize, watch television or plan activities. Women incarcerated at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility share what they’ve learned in the landscape program.  (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Housing units are painted in soft colors and decorated with murals. There’s no razor wire on the fencing that surrounds the jail. Inside, deputies in each housing unit sit behind large desks rather than sealed inside darkened control booths. The architects who designed Las Colinas prioritized features intended to reduce “anger, stress, anxiety, sadness and depression,” like acoustics that dampen noise, ample natural light and views of outdoors. In a description of the project on its website, architecture firm HMC said the goal was to create a “healing environment,” noting that “architecture has a significant impact on the human psyche” and acknowledged that many incarcerated people have histories of abuse, trauma and mental illness. For Lt. Andrew Zelt, Las Colinas’ administrative lieutenant, the most profound operational difference from the old jail is movement. Zelt started out at as a deputy at the old Las Colinas. “Anytime (a woman) went anywhere, they had to be escorted by a deputy,” he said. “Here, they can walk and go get their medications. They can walk from point A to point B, and they don’t need a deputy to escort them.” That shift, he said, has altered the atmosphere inside the jail. “You see a mindset change,” Zelt said, “a little bit more normalcy being added.” There are a large sewing room, a commercial-scale laundry operation and multiple garden spaces — including indoor hydroponic towers filled with herbs and produce. All food grown at Las Colinas goes straight to the jail’s culinary program, where it’s used in meals prepared by incarcerated workers learning kitchen and food-service skills. Women at Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility learn how to use hydroponic gardens to grow produce. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Officials say the goal is both practical and therapeutic — teach skills that translate to jobs outside jail but also give women a chance to keep busy and tap into creativity. “I never thought I’d learn things like this,” one woman told a San Diego Union-Tribune reporter, showing off a landscape design plan she’d recently drawn up. “When you study it, you want to learn more.” As much as it’s a model, Las Colinas also raises a question that strikes at the heart of planning for the new Vista jail. While Las Colinas was built with reentry in mind, its size was based on assumptions that crime would continue to rise as the county’s population grew. In the late ’90s into the mid-2000s, the old Las Colinas held between 590 and 730 women, but plans describe the need for a jail that could hold at least 1,216 — a number that ticked up slightly to the jail’s current 1,280-person capacity. At the time, female incarceration rates had been on the rise. California had not yet enacted major sentencing reforms, bail changes or diversion programs at anything close to today’s scale. Jails were also designed around a one-size-fits-all model that failed to address the trauma and abuse common among women in custody. A woman incarcerated at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility works in the sewing department on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Today, the average daily population at Las Colinas is between 480 and 520 — only about 40% of capacity. Zelt said he understands why the plans overshot. The old jail was an acute reminder of the consequences of underestimating need. “Better that than be sorry you built something way too small,” he said. Sheriff Kelly Martinez said she understands concerns about overbuilding. “We’ll take a close look when we’re estimating the size of the Vista jail,” she said, “because I agree — to have a campus as large as Las Colinas that’s sort of underutilized is not optimal.” Using the extra space by moving men over to Las Colinas is not an option. The Sheriff’s Office tried that during COVID-19 and learned a lesson. “Men and women need to be housed differently,” Martinez said. “Men are more aggressive, and they were very destructive when we had them there during COVID.” Martinez said she’s been exploring ideas for the unused space. She’s looked into an Illinois program where incarcerated people care for shelter dogs in an on-site kennel. “We’ve played with the idea of using some of the space for chickens, just different sort of ideas like that,” she added, as well as potentially “some childcare opportunities for our staff.” There’s also the question of who qualifies for reentry programming. Most women are at Las Colinas for a short stay — of the 9,123 women booked in 2025, roughly 80% were released within seven days. Women in protective custody or administrative separation are considered too high-risk to participate in most programs, and some medical and psychiatric conditions also restrict eligibility. Only about 10% of the women — 53 as of last week — are workers, able to take advantage of all the job training opportunities, the open dorm-style housing and the freedom to move around the facility. They also are eligible for classes and skilled certifications offered by local community colleges and trade associations. Jobs include preparing meals, cultivating produce, sewing uniforms worn by people in San Diego jails and cleaning the heaps of laundry that pile up each day. To qualify, participants must be willing and able to work 32 to 40 hours a week and not have a history of rule violations. Women incarcerated at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility do laundry on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Zelt said they try to be as flexible as possible with who can be a worker. “It’s really case by case,” he said. “How egregious was the rule violation? When was the last one? Has it been a long time? Have you shown a pattern of correcting that behavior?” And even among those who qualify to be workers, some decline. Workers earn about 50 cents a day, a rate Zelt said has been standard for years. Pay, he said, rarely drives participation. “The incentives are already built in,” he said — better housing, a bed with a pillow, more freedom. Anyone in Las Colinas is eligible to take high-school equivalency classes, and some certifications, like a food handler’s card, are available to women who don’t qualify for a work slot. “The Sheriff’s Office also offers additional reentry and support programs through staff, volunteers and contracted partners,” a spokesperson said. Martinez said officials are always exploring more ways to engage women in programs that will help them stay out of jail. For Zelt, Las Colinas is not a cure-all. But he believes it shows what’s possible when design, programming and custody practices are aligned. “When you see how we’ve been able to kind of change and adapt, what we have today is far and away better,” he said. “Just talking with the women, you understand that it’s a better experience for them.” Staff writer Teri Figueroa contributed to this story. ...read more read less