Judge Calls a Special Hearing on County Jail

Concerned about allegations that Orange County is not moving quickly enough to obey his order to end overcrowding at the County Jail, a federal judge Monday unexpectedly ordered a special hearing next week.

U.S. District Judge William P. Gray in Los Angeles set the hearing for next Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Santa Ana after hearing complaints about the Santa Ana jail from Richard Herman, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“I didn’t like what I was seeing the last couple of weeks and I wanted the judge to know about it,” Herman said.

Herman said that the number of inmates sleeping on floor mats because of a lack of beds was increasing again after an initial drop six weeks ago.

Makes Prediction

“The judge is not going to tolerate inmates sleeping on the floor, not for 24 hours, not for a minute,” Herman predicted. “That’s not going to happen any more.”

Edward Duran, an Orange County deputy counsel, said after listening to Herman’s recitation of how many inmates were without beds, “I don’t think his numbers are correct.”

Duran said he was unhappy that Gray ordered the hearing because it indicates that Herman’s complaints “can be perceived as being valid.”

“I’m sure if there were problems, the Sheriff’s Department would have contacted us,” Duran said. “I hope it turns out to be nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.”

Herman and Duran were in Los Angeles federal court on another case and met with Gray in the judge’s chambers in an unscheduled session.

Herman Brought Suit

The next hearing on the jail overcrowding lawsuit brought by Herman on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union had originally been set for October.

Last March Gray fined the county $50,000 for not complying with the order he issued seven years ago to end overcrowding in the jail. Gray also fined the county $10 a day for each prisoner left without a bed for more than 24 hours, effective May 18.

In addition, the judge found Sheriff Brad Gates and the county Board of Supervisors in criminal contempt of court for violating his 1978 order to improve conditions at the jail.

The daily $10 fines had amounted to $51,600 by the time of the last hearing on June 24. On that day Gray cut those fines in half, upheld the original $50,000 levy and said the $10 daily sanctions would continue.

Part of the original fine went to pay for the services of Lawrence Grossman, a retired federal prison warden, who has been monitoring jail conditions and reporting to Gray.

Grossman reported last week that for the last two weeks in July, the number of inmates going without a bed for more than 24 hours ranged from none to 48. Gates reported to Gray that the average without beds for more than one night from July 27 through Aug. 2 was 20. The sheriff said the jail population ranged from 1,628 to 1,759 in that period.

A point hammered at by Herman was Duran’s statement to the judge at the June 24 hearing that by July 5, the population at the men’s jail should be no higher than 1,500.

The jail has a state-rated capacity of 1,191 inmates and now has 1,657 beds. At the time of Gray’s fine in March, the jail population was more than 2,000.

Reduced Numbers

To cut down on the jail population, Gates reduced the number of state and federal prisoners housed there and asked city police forces to be more selective about who they were sending to the jail.

In addition, triple-tiered bunks were added, some inmates were transferred to the Theo Lacy branch jail in Orange, and inflated tents that can house an additional 400 inmates were erected at the James A. Musick Honor Farm near El Toro.

The number of inmates in the jail dropped to fewer than 1,600 in early July, then rose again to nearly 1,800 later in the month, Herman said.

“The inmates are entitled to have decent and humane conditions,” Herman said, “not wonderful, just decent, and that’s certainly not what they have.”

Grossman reported visiting the branch jails on July 23 and July 31 and finding the number of inmates at the inflated tents at Musick far below the number that could be housed there, possibly because “the housing tents were hot,” with temperatures averaging 90 degrees in the last week in July.

Trailer-like modular units are scheduled to be installed starting next month to replace the tents, with permanent buildings due in three or four years.

Thomas F. Riley, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said Herman’s charges of county foot-dragging and Gray’s scheduling of a hearing next week struck him “like a kick in the gut.”

“My response is one of true surprise,” Riley said. He said he failed to find anything in Grossman’s reports “that indicated that progress was not being made satisfactorily.”

Riley noted that the supervisors have authorized the expenditure of more than $3 million to solve the overcrowding problem and that while “I guess it’s necessary . . . at the same time other good projects and things are not going to be met” due to lack of money.