C. Arnholt Smith, 85, to Work as Gardener for Honor Camp

Fallen financier C. Arnholt Smith, now serving a one-year sentence for a 1979 conviction of grand theft and tax evasion, was moved Monday from the County Jail downtown to a minimum-security facility in Southeast San Diego, where he will be put to work as a gardener.

Smith--a one-time political power broker and former owner of the San Diego Padres, the Yellow Cab Co. and the now-bankrupt U.S National Bank--will be paid 65 cents a day to help tend the honor camp’s lawn, hedges and rose bushes, said Vicki Markey, deputy chief of the county Probation Department.

The 85-year-old Smith, who avoided jail for more than five years through a series of appeals, served 42 days in the downtown jail before his transfer. Judge Kenneth A. Johns had recommended that Smith serve his sentence in an honor camp, and the Probation Department’s classification committee agreed.

The Southeast San Diego facility, a former convalescent hospital that houses 120 inmates, is one of six county honor camps; the other five are in rural areas. Smith, said to be in fragile health, was assigned there because it is close to hospitals.

Most of the inmates at the honor camp are permitted to leave the grounds as part of a work furlough program. But Smith is one of about 20 inmates who will work inside the camp, Markey said.

“We looked at him very, very closely because of his age. We had a doctor look at him as well as a nurse,” Markey said. “He should be able to work a fairly full day.”

Markey said 53% of the honor camp inmates were convicted of misdemeanors, 47% of felonies. Inmates who are convicted of nonviolent crimes and are not considered escape risks receive preference for placement in the minimum-security camps, she said.