Orange County Handed Strict Limits on Jail

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Sheriff Brad Gates cannot accept any more prisoners at the overcrowded Orange County Jail unless he can provide each with a bed after 24 hours and that the maximum number of inmates in each jail dormitory must be reduced to 90.

U.S. District Judge William P. Gray’s sweeping decision is the first time a federal judge has ever set such rigid controls on the population at the Orange County Jail. Gray said his order will take effect in 10 days.

He also ordered that the jail cannot house more than 1,500 inmates by Dec. 1, and no more than 1,400 by April 1, 1986. The daily count at the men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana has ranged from 1,700 to 1,800 since Gray appointed a special master in March to monitor jail conditions. The jail has an official capacity of 1,191.

The county has already transferred more than 100 inmates to the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange and set up a temporary 320-bed “tent city” at the James A. Musick Honor Farm to ease overcrowding at the main jail.

Gray’s order, which follows his own tour of the jail and a public hearing on Tuesday, means that Sheriff Gates will either have to send even more prisoners to other jail facilities within 10 days or refuse to accept some new arrestees.

Gates was unavailable Thursday. “We will find a way to comply” with Gray’s order, Undersheriff Raul Ramos said. Ramos added that Gates might ask the courts within the 10-day period to increase the number of misdemeanor inmates who can be released on their own recognizance.

Ramos added that Gates will send a report to the Board of Supervisors today asking that they speed up the search for a site for a second jail.

Gray already had a 5-month-old order in effect requiring the county to pay $10 per day for each inmate who has to sleep on the floor after the first 24 hours. That order came on March 18, when Gray found the county in criminal contempt--and imposed a $50,000 fine--for not complying with his 7-year-old order that officials do something about overcrowding at the jail.

Despite the fines, Gates and his staff since the March 18 order have required between 100 and 300 inmates to sleep on the floor for lack of beds.

More Beds in Dorms

The number on the floor was nearly 500 when Gray issued his March 18 order in response to complaints from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The number of inmates sleeping on the floor fluctuates according to changes in the jail’s overall population. But the latest available jail count shows that on July 31 only 22 men were on the floor more than 24 hours.

Gray said Tuesday that he recognized the county has made a sincere effort since then to reduce the jail population. But he added that “in some respects” the overcrowding was worse during his tour Tuesday than when he toured the jail two months ago because of the excessive number of beds in the dormitories.

Thursday’s order restricting the population in each of the eight dormitories to 90 will make it even more difficult to comply with the judge’s order to get everyone off the floor after the first 24 hours.

In June, Gray had approved a plan presented by Gates to replace 42 double bunks in each dormitory with 30 triple bunks, to give each of the cells more floor space. But at the hearing Tuesday, he learned that jail officials had installed the 30 triple bunks in each one but had also kept several double bunks in each.

Gray asked Jail Commander George King what he would have to do if the judge issued an order that no more than the 30 triple bunks be permitted in each of the dormitories.

“I would take out 28 double bunks and sleep another 56 men on the floor,” King said.

Gray held the hearing Tuesday after attorney Richard Herman of the ACLU complained that Gates was not reducing overcrowding by adding more bunks.

Ramos said Thursday that Gates is not upset by Gray’s order that a 1,500 ceiling be put on the jail by Dec. 1. A 450-bed branch jail is expected to be in operation at the James A. Musick Honor Farm by that date.

Ramos said: “It’s going to take the cooperation of everybody within the criminal justice system in Orange County” to comply with Gray’s 10-day order.

Herman, who has led the fight against Gates over crowded conditions at the jail, was delighted with Gray’s new order and said it was “terrific, really terrific.”

Supervisor Disagrees

Herman said he felt the end to the protracted legal battle was approaching, with his target of a jail holding just 1,191 inmates (the official capacity), drawing closer.

“When we get to that point, the ACLU and the judge and everyone will be satisfied,” Herman said. Reaching that level, Herman added, “will get the jail population down to a number where the inmates are finally safe . . . living in reasonably human conditions.”

Thomas F. Riley, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, disagreed sharply with Gray’s order.

“Obviously, my disappointment is very great,” Riley said. “I served as a Marine (he’s a retired Marine general) and I’m sometimes confused that these people (the inmates) are getting better treatment than people who served their country in combat.”

Gray emphasized at Tuesday’s hearing that his original order for the county to reduce overcrowding is 8 years old, and that it wasn’t until he issued his March 18 order that county officials made much effort to comply.

But Riley said the county had done what it could in the face of competing demands. He said finding the money and a suitable location for a new jail was a difficult task.

The county has not yet selected a site for a new jail, even though county officials have said only a new building will permanently solve the problem of overcrowding at the Santa Ana facility.

Riley also expressed surprised that Gates did not accompany Gray on the judge’s jail tour Tuesday.

“I would have thought the sheriff would have been there, would have insisted on being there,” Riley said.

Gates was unavailable for comment about Riley’s remarks.

Gray was accompanied by Jail Commander King and Deputy County Counsel Edward Duran as well as Herman of the ACLU.