Board Puts Priority on Site for New Jail

Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley acknowledged Tuesday that county officials were lax in assessing the urgency of a federal judge’s 1978 order to improve conditions at the Orange County Jail and said that politics has delayed selection of a new jail site.

A day after U.S. District Judge William P. Gray found the supervisors and Sheriff Brad Gates in contempt of his 1978 order and levied a $50,000 fine, the board voted unanimously Tuesday to seek contract proposals from consultants who would analyze proposed sites for a new maximum security jail. A board-appointed task force has identified 25 potential sites but has not yet recommended any of them.

The timing of the board’s action was coincidental but helped illustrate the supervisors’ contention that progress will now be made on selecting a site after years of political infighting.

However, the board’s action also served as a reminder that public hearings on possible sites are still to be held, along with a lengthy environmental review process.

Moreover, county officials acknowledged Tuesday that they have no idea where they will get the money to pay for the new, multimillion-dollar facility, which if built as planned would house about 2,000 inmates.

The bottom line: Construction is still only a theoretical possibility, and is several years away at best.

“The urgency (of the 1978 court order) was not uppermost in people’s minds,” Riley acknowledged in an interview Tuesday. “Judge Gray’s order was not impacting us as much as public opposition to a new (jail) site was . . . . Generally, the public opposition was tremendous.”

Other county officials said there was no impetus to rush out and build a new jail because jail inmates and organizations that aid them have little or no political clout in conservative, law-and-order Orange County.

“No supervisor is going to lose votes letting jail conditions get worse,” said a member of Supervisor Ralph Clark’s staff. “As far as the public is concerned, the tougher it is for inmates, the better.”

Doubts New Jail Needed

Ron Rogers, Supervisor Bruce Nestande’s top aide and chairman of a jail site task force appointed by the board, even expressed doubts Tuesday that a new jail is needed to satisfy the overcrowding problems that led Gray to find the county in contempt of his 1978 order.

“Quite frankly, “ Rogers said, “the new jail will address future, long-range needs, not the situation the federal court is worried about.”

County officials said the planned expansion of the Theo Lacy facility in Orange and the James Musick honor farm in El Toro, both of which may be completed in 1987 or 1988, will provide quicker relief than a new jail, along with a new intake-release center being built next to the existing jail in downtown Santa Ana.

Riley recalled Tuesday how, nearly four years ago, residents of Leisure World in Laguna Hills blocked consideration of the Orange County Raceway as a new jail site. Later, he said, Nestande’s constituents objected to a site proposed in El Toro. Then, he recalled, Supervisor Roger Stanton objected to a proposed site in downtown Santa Ana, accusing south county residents of wanting to dump the jail-site problem on a neighborhood where the existing jail is now located.

Anaheim Hills Protest

Still later, Riley said, residents of Anaheim Hills objected strenuously to a proposed site in Gypsum Canyon, and the board appointed a task force last June to locate sites that would be more acceptable politically because of their remoteness from developed communities.

So far, 25 sites in eight general areas have been located by the task force. The sites meet basic criteria set by the board, such as flatness, low seismic activity, and low risk of water pollution.

The eight general areas are Black Star Canyon, Prima Desecha, Trabuco Creek, Irvine Lake, Santiago Canyon, Rancho Lomas, Gypsum/Coal Canyon and the Pico area near San Clemente.

Politically, Riley said, gaining public acceptance for sites in south Orange County has been a problem partly because the area has been bombarded in recent years with proposals for a high-speed train, the San Joaquin Hills and Foothill freeways, two new dump sites and the proposed new jail.

“People were beginning to feel that they were being smothered, so the opposition was very heavy,” Riley said.

Generate ‘Political Heat’

“It’s these regional projects that generate the most political heat.”

Riley and Nestande said Tuesday that they hope residents near the proposed jail sites will realize that the sites under consideration are not in anyone’s neighborhood.

“They’re remote sites,” Riley said. “That should calm a lot of fears.”

Sheriff Gates objected to remote sites two years ago, citing the long travel distances and extra costs involved.

But Riley said Tuesday, “The importance of an issue changes as necessities change. I think we would be more worried today about getting the new jail under way and less worried about the sheriff’s travel problems.”