Clark Will Move for Quick Jail Solution

Orange County Supervisor Ralph B. Clark said Monday that he will ask the Board of Supervisors to declare that an emergency exists and seek a “near-term solution” to overcrowding at the County Jail.

Clark said he will ask the supervisors today to direct the county staff to report back next week on ways to shorten the process of selecting a site for a new jail.

The county’s existing main jail on Monday housed 1,438 male inmates in facilities that have an official capacity of 1,191. Clark said site selection, environmental reviews and construction of a new jail could take up to five years.

Board Held in Contempt

“In light of our critical jail problem, we simply do not have the luxury of this schedule,” Clark said.

County supervisors and Sheriff Brad Gates were held in criminal contempt of court in March, 1985, and the county has been fined $50,000 for failing to comply with U.S. District Judge William P. Gray’s order to reduce jail overcrowding.

Gates was ordered last week to return to federal court on March 20 to show why he should not be held in contempt of court again for allowing the central jail’s population to exceed the 1,500-inmate limit set by Gray last year. The jail population exceeded the limit on three occasions in February.

Gray also has ordered that the jail population be reduced to 1,400 by April 1.

Earlier Monday, Gates called a press conference to explain what he called “the real facts on the jail.”

May Soon Face Choice

Gates said his critics’ accusation “that we have done nothing in the past 12 years” to alleviate jail overcrowding “is just not correct.” He said county efforts to comply with Gray’s order have resulted in the current construction of a $50-million intake-release facility next to the main jail and the transfer of hundreds of inmates to temporary quarters at branch facilities.

But Gates said he is nearing a point at which he will have to choose between releasing dangerous inmates or violating Gray’s order. If forced to choose, he probably will “come down on the side of the public” and refuse to release dangerous inmates, Gates said.

Of the 1,438 inmates in county jail on Monday, 1,226 were serving time for felony convictions or awaiting trial on felony charges, Gates said. Only 212 were in jail for misdemeanor charges.

Of those held for misdemeanors, Gates described 38 as having “violent or assaultive backgrounds” or “extensive felony backgrounds.”