More Jail Facilities on Way, Sheriff Says : Gates Urges Tolerance of Crowding

Sheriff Brad Gates says it is in the public’s best interest to tolerate the overcrowding at the Orange County Jail until additional facilities can be built in two more years.

“If we have to turn inmates loose just to get the numbers down, the people of Orange County will become the prisoners,” Gates said in an interview last week.

Gates’ representatives will be in federal court in Los Angeles today on a contempt allegation against the sheriff brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU accuses the sheriff of failing to provide minimum living standards ordered by the court seven years ago.

The ACLU wants U.S. District Judge William P. Gray of Los Angeles to appoint a “special master” who would provide the court with a plan for reducing the jail’s population. The men’s jail has a capacity of 1,191 but its daily count is often above 2,000, according to jail records.

Gates denied inmates’ claims that jail conditions are inhumane. The sheriff described the conditions as “uncomfortable,” but said the inmates’ characterization of the jail as a human dog pound is unfair.

“The inmates get the necessities. There are lots of places in Orange County where two and three families have to live together, and people have to sleep on the floor,” Gates said.

The county is building a 400-bed intake and release center just west of the men’s jail to help separate men arrested for drunkenness and misdemeanorsfrom more serious offenders. It’s supposed to be completed by October, 1987. Also, the county has approved a 180-bed expansion at the Theo Lacy minimum security jail in Orange, scheduled for completion by the end of 1987.

“If we were just sitting on our hands, I could see why Judge Gray might be upset,” Gates said. “But we’re doing everything we can about the overcrowding.”

Richard Herman, an ACLU attorney from Newport Beach, disagees.

“The solution is not to build more jails, but to find alternative programs to sending people to jail who don’t really need to be there,” Herman said. “When Gates’ new facilities are built, the present jail will still be overcrowded, and men will still have to sleep next to the toilets.”

Gates suggested that one reason for the overcrowding is that law enforcement agencies are doing a better job.

“Back before the jail was overcrowded, our crime rate was going up and up,” Gates said. “Now the jail is packed, but crime is going down. I think it shows we’re doing something right.”

Gates said the jail’s screening process--which includes round-the-clock work at the jail by Municipal Court employees who decide whether inmates can be released on their own recognizance--keeps out people who are not a risk to society. The others who are arrested, Gates said, belong in jail.

Gates said he hoped that Gray would decide not to interfere with operations at the jail. But if Gray does intervene, Gates said, he will propose that the sheriff’s office file regular reports on jail conditions with the judge as an alternative to the ACLU’s request for the appointment of a special master. If Gray rejects that plan, Gates said, he will propose the appointment of a jail monitor from the state Board of Corrections who would report to the judge.

Still, Gates said, his staff has come up with several recommendations for a special master if Gray insists on appointing one. Gates said he vehemently opposes the candidate recommended by the ACLU. He is Paul Sutton, a criminal justice administration professor from Cal State San Diego, who is also an ACLU board member in San Diego County.

On the overcrowding issue, Gates said, “I’m in a Catch-22. I’m faced with an issue I can’t win on. But I really believe the public is happy with what we are doing at the jail.”