6 Added to Screen New Jail Inmates for Release

Well aware of federal court pressure to keep down overcrowding at the Orange County Jail, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday added six more investigators to the tiny Municipal Court program that screens new inmates for possible release.

The program, called detention release, has had just 10 investigators plus an administrator to cover three eight-hour shifts a day, seven days a week, in a small office on the first floor of the jail. Two of the 10 spend most of their time outside the jail, at West and Central municipal courts.

County officials estimate that the six additional investigators will increase the number of inmates released on their own recognizance, which ranges from 1,000 to 1,200 a month, by another 330 monthly.

Those numbers are expected to ease the pressure on the jail population, which has been in the 1,500s but must be no more than 1,500 by Dec. 1 to comply with the latest federal court order.

Don Bell, detention release director, has explained in previous months that many inmates qualify for release on their own recognizance but have to remain in jail because the court does not have adequate staff to check their backgrounds. For instance, if an inmate is arrested Saturday night and says he has a job to go to if he can get out by Monday morning, an investigator must spend time to determine if that information is true.

Deemed Adequate

Another six investigators should be adequate to serve the jail’s needs, Bell said.

Central Municipal Judge Gary Carter, who oversees the detention release program, said the new investigators “will make a big difference.”

“Theoretically we should see each new inmate who comes into the jail,” Carter said. “But we haven’t been able to do that because we haven’t had the staff. Now we should be able to reach everyone.”

Sheriff Brad Gates credited the overtime efforts of detention release officials in August with helping him meet a new federal court order concerning overcrowding.

On March 18, U.S. District Judge William P. Gray found Gates and the supervisors in criminal contempt for failure to comply with his 7-year-old order to reduce overcrowding. Gray appointed a special master, Lawrence Grossman, to monitor jail conditions, fined the county $50,000 and added a fine of $10 a day for each inmate who slept on the jail floor after the first 24 hours. In August, he ordered that no inmates could sleep on the floor past the first 24 hours.

None on Floor

On Tuesday, Grossman’s latest report showed that no inmates have slept on the floor at any time since that order took effect Aug. 24. But detention release officials were working 60-hour weeks during that period to help Gates make the deadline.

Grossman’s latest report shows that the jail’s population is still above 1,500 on most days. The jail has 1,653 beds, but some inmates still could be forced to sleep on the floor because of jail classification problems. For example, if more inmates than usual are classified as high-risk because of their prior records, the section of the jail reserved for them could be overcrowded even when beds were available in the sections for inmates considered less of a risk.

To avoid any possibility of inmates sleeping on the floor, Gates last month authorized jail officials to begin releasing some misdemeanor inmates on their own recognizance, called citation releases.

Also on Tuesday, the board voted for a 5 1/2% pay increase for detention-release personnel. Court officials had complained about rapid turnover in detention release and said it was difficult to find qualified people to fill the positions because the pay scale was so low.