Monday Was Moving Day at the Jail : 100 Inmates Transferred From Main Facility to Theo Lacy to Ease Crowding

One hundred inmates were moved from the crowded central Orange County Jail to a minimum-security branch jail Monday to reduce a $10-a-day court fine for each inmate forced to sleep on the floor or a table for more than one night.

Two buses carrying the inmates arrived at the Theo Lacy branch jail in Orange at about 2:10 p.m.

The inmates, unshackled as they stepped off the buses in their orange jumpsuits, carried their belongings in paper bags as they walked through a column of sheriff’s deputies.

To facilitate the transfer, 76 Theo Lacy inmates were moved to the James A. Musick Honor Farm in El Toro, which has less security, earlier in the day.

The inmates taken from the main jail had been serving sentences for non-violent crimes, sheriff’s Lt. Harold Schaffroth said.

The decision to move the inmates was announced Saturday by Sheriff Brad Gates, who along with county supervisors is required by a federal court order to reduce crowding at the central jail.

Additional security measures were taken at both Theo Lacy and the Musick Honor Farm, Gates said.

The central jail, built to house 1,191 inmates, held 1,933 before the transfer.

U.S. District Court Judge William Gray on March 17 fined the county $50,000 for contempt of court for violating his 1978 order to reduce crowding at the main jail. The $10-per-day fine began on May 22.

Between 220 and 250 inmates were sleeping on mattresses on the floor or tables before Monday’s transfer, sheriff’s Lt. Pauline Dammann said. Schaffroth said he did not know how many inmates did not have beds after the move was completed.

The Theo Lacy facility held 446 prisoners before Monday’s transfer. The jail was built to house about 600 inmates. The Musick Honor Farm housed 197 men and 63 women before the transfer.

Sheriff’s officials said Monday that they could not provide a capacity figure for the jail because new bunks were installed for the newly arriving inmates.

Gates said the inmate transfer is a short-term solution to the problem of jail crowding. ‘Long-term solutions do not lie within existing jail facilities,” he added.

The sheriff said his department had requested that the county’s General Services Agency provide a list of county-owned buildings capable of lodging about 300 inmates dormitory-style.

Gates said the agency suggested two basements, one at 601 N. Broadway and another at 1300 S. Grand Ave., both in Santa Ana.

Gates said both suggestions were unacceptable for reasons he said would not be disclosed until today, when his department presents supervisors with a report on solutions to the jail-crowding problem.

The possibility of installing cots in the jail was ruled out because it could create a fire hazard, Gates said. Also, he added, inmates could disassemble the cots and use the parts as weapons.