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In-person visitation at Maguire Correctional Facility will resume Friday after nearly six months without access due to a broken elevator, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday, but the office warned that visitation will likely be halted again in 2026 once construction begins on a broader elevator replacement project.
The pause started in late June due to the sole visitation elevator breaking down. While the facility has other elevators, those are located in a secure part of the jail and it would be unsafe to allow the public to use those, the Sheriff’s Office previously told this news organization.
San Mateo County has known about issues with the elevators in the jail for years and the county determined the elevators needed to be replaced in 2023. In June 2025, before the elevators broke, the county board of supervisors approved a $4.5 million contract to replace four elevators in the facility.
The Sheriff’s Office said it took a while to fix the visitation elevator because multiple attempts failed.
In August, the Sheriff’’s Office acknowledged the issue publicly after this news organization exclusively learned that in-person visitation was suspended. At the time, at least one family said they were “tormented” by not being able to see their incarcerated family member. Fixin’ SMC, which advocates for reform of the Sheriff’s Office, publicly called on the Sheriff’s Office to find a workaround while repairs were underway.
“It appears from the outside as though the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t care enough to find a workaround,” Fixin’ board chair Jim Lawrence said at the time.
The Sheriff’s Office said that all stair wells were in secure areas of the facility, and even if they allowed families to use them, it may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
While in-person visitation were paused, families could still contact their loved ones for free through virtual visitation, but several families said it was not the same.
“I have tried video visit with my son, but that is a pathetic system when you only see his face in a little square the size of a postage stamp. It also glitches out if either one of us move our faces even an inch,” the mom told Fixin, according to a press release.
The Sheriff’s Office said that when the jail’s elevators are replaced later this year, in-person visitation will need to be paused again during parts of construction which could continue into the entirety of 2026. It did not provide an estimate of when in-person visitation will be paused or for how long.
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