O.C. Grand Jury warns of worse jail crowding

By Christine Hanley

June 8, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The Orange County Grand Jury took renewed aim at the Sheriff’s Department’s overcrowded jails, reporting Thursday that relief was at least two years away and warning that state prison changes threatened to worsen the problem.

In its 18-page report, the panel also recommended that as many as 40 full-time deputies be hired to work at the 576-bed Building B at the Theo Lacy Branch Jail. The building, one of several on the compound, is staffed exclusively by deputies working overtime at a cost of $5.5 million, money that could be better used to cover the full-time salaries, the panel said.

“The advantage of using overtime is that no additional pension or healthcare benefits must be paid,” the grand jury wrote. “However, this savings is offset by the additional cost of overtime pay and the stress that overtime work could, in the long run, result in an increase in sick leave and poorer job performance.”

The grand jury recommended that the Sheriff’s Department expand its hiring program to reduce the need for overtime deputies; work with state lawmakers to ensure that the governor’s plan does not burden the jails; and expedite plans to expand the James A. Musick jail, which has about 1,300 beds but is slated for 7,500 at final build-out.

For the most part, the grand jury’s annual review echoed criticisms about overcrowding raised year after year by previous panels.

Although the report is the first issued since the slaying of an inmate last year, it makes only passing reference to the death’s being the first homicide since 1994.

The Orange County district attorney’s office has impaneled a special grand jury to investigate allegations that John Derek Chamberlain was fatally beaten by fellow inmates Oct. 5 after guards allegedly told them, mistakenly, that he had been accused of child molestation. In fact, Chamberlain had been charged with possession of child pornography.

Chamberlain was killed in a minimum-security unit known as F Barracks West at Theo Lacy in Orange. With a capacity for 3,111 men, Theo Lacy is the largest of the department’s five jails and houses primarily maximum-security inmates.

Six current and former inmates have been charged with murder in Chamberlain’s death. His father has filed a $20-million wrongful-death claim against the county, alleging that guards allowed influential inmates to review paperwork outlining the charges and mistakenly told inmates that Chamberlain was a child molester.

The Sheriff’s Department denies allegations that a deputy revealed information on Chamberlain.

Assistant Sheriff Charlie Walters, head of jail operations, did not return a call seeking comment on the grand jury’s report. The department is required to respond to the findings and recommendations.

The grand jury found that the average inmate population in Orange County continued to grow, hovering at 6,777 in March, up from 6,162 two years earlier.

The increase followed the 2006 opening of Building B at Theo Lacy, which, contrary to expectations, failed to ease the crunch at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana and the Musick facility east of Irvine.

The Sheriff’s Department also operates at an inmate-to-staff ratio that is more than twice the national average, with nearly 32 inmates for each on-duty, sworn deputy, the panel found.

The report says that overcrowding issues would be exacerbated by the governor’s prison plan. Under it, the county would have to release thousands of convicted felons to make room for about 3,500 inmates sentenced to state prison terms of three years or less, the panel found.

Currently, the county has to retain only those convicts with sentences of a year or less and inmates awaiting trial or other court proceedings.

To accommodate the governor’s initiative, the jails -- which are not built to house long-term, higher-level inmates -- would have to be reclassified to handle more dangerous offenders, and additional staff would have to be hired, the panel found.

The grand jury also praised 17 deputies for heroic efforts, including saving inmates from choking and killing themselves.

christine.hanley@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Bed, staff shortage

Orange County’s jail population is increasing, and jails are full but understaffed, according to a grand jury report released Thursday.

Average O.C. jail population

Theo Lacy is the biggest of the county’s five facilities, holding 44% of the inmates.

Ratio of inmates to on-duty staff

O.C. average

32 to 1

U.S. average*

14 to 1