San Diego Jail Crisis Just One of Many on Jampacked Agenda

Milwaukee Brewers 1, Wisconsin 0.

That’s the courtroom score after a judge threw out plans for a new prison three-quarters of a mile from Milwaukee County Stadium, ruling that officials must consider the adverse economic impact the site might have on baseball club owner Bud Selig.

Some Wisconsin politicians are furious with Selig because they had finally found a legislator who was willing to accept a new prison in his district. The proposed site: A rusty old railroad yard in an abandoned industrial area.

In Orange County, similar trouble is expected from the Los Angeles Rams, the California Angels, Disneyland and the City of Anaheim over last week’s Board of Supervisors decision to put a new, 1,000-bed maximum-security jail half a mile from Anaheim Stadium.

Escalating Crisis

Throughout the United States, officials face an escalating crisis of prison and jail overcrowding, resulting in a mad dash for construction funds and politically acceptable sites. But officials say that nowhere else is the problem more serious than in California, where new, tougher laws, crackdowns on crimes such as drunk driving, stricter bail rules and longer sentences have sent inmate populations soaring well beyond the design or lawful capacities of existing correctional facilities.

Some examples:

- In Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors last week adopted an emergency measure to allow the release of about 240 jail inmates who will be supervised by probation officers. The inmates are suspects who qualify for bail but cannot afford it. Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block said that since the beginning of 1986, the county’s jail population has climbed by 2,000. On Tuesday, there were 19,517 prisoners housed in the county’s eight-jail system, a system with cells designed to hold 11,820.

- The Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved a similar measure last week following a judge’s order. Seven people will be hired to screen inmates to be released pending trial. The judge acted on the overcrowding issue even before the case challenging jail conditions has been decided.

- San Diego County, racked by controversy over early inmate releases and cases where jail sentences imposed by judges are not served at all, is seeking a half-cent sales tax to finance a new jail near Santee.

- In Contra Costa County, officials are deciding whether to put some inmates in a hotel.

- A succession of state and federal judges has virtually taken control of the Santa Clara County jail, resulting in the court-ordered construction of emergency inmate housing at branch locations. A 1984 legislative report from the state Board of Corrections indicated that Santa Clara had the most troubled jail system in the state. State officials say that little has occurred since 1984 to change their assessment.

‘Population Exploding’

“The jail population is exploding,” said Mark Morris, state project director for jail construction financing. “Our latest figures show that 25 (out of 58) of California’s counties are operating jails under court orders or continuing litigation. Some 13 of them have had court-ordered population caps placed on them.”

A soon-to-be-released report from the state Board of Corrections to the California Legislature is expected to show that last year county jails in the state had an average daily inmate count of 49,805 but a capacity of only 39,618 beds, with many inmates sleeping on floors or in makeshift, outdoor camps.

San Diego County jails are packed with cells built for one inmate housing as many as three and inmates being issued blankets to spend nights on cold tile floors. Although the downtown County Jail comes close to complying with a court order limiting its capacity to 750 inmates, the county meets that limit by transferring inmates to 11 regional jails and honor camps, all of which are now severely overcrowded.

The most crowded regional jail in San Diego County, in the South Bay, is at more than 250% over capacity and is a “powder keg waiting to explode,” said Assistant Sheriff Cliff Powell.

Until recently, San Diego County solved its inmate population problem not by planning to build more jails, but by releasing criminals back into the community. Today most people who commit misdemeanor crimes in San Diego County are cited and released on the street without seeing the jail. More than half of the misdemeanor suspects who are taken to jail get out within four hours, and two-thirds of all felons are set free within three days of their arrest.

But last week both houses of the state Legislature approved a bill that could enable San Diego County voters to increase the sales tax half a cent on the dollar to pay for new jails and courthouse buildings. The measure permits the county Board of Supervisors to place the issue on the ballot in November or later.

With the approval of two-thirds of the voters, such a measure would increase the sales tax to 6.5 cents on the dollar. The increase would raise as much as $420 million over five years to build more jail space.

And more help is on the way from Sacramento. State jail-financing bonds approved by voters in 1982 and 1984 have produced more than $400 million in construction contracts. Most of the jails being built as a result of the bonds will be ready to accept inmates in two to four years.

Such construction will increase statewide capacity by 10,126 beds, according to Morris. County-financed improvements are expected to add another 1,437 beds.

But officials warn that the jail population is growing at a staggering 10% annual rate, and if the pace continues, planned projects will not be able to absorb the increase.

Bond Issue on Ballot

That is why California voters will see another jail bond measure--Proposition 52--on the statewide ballot in November.

In Los Angeles County, U.S. District Judge William Gray has been working with attorneys for the county and the American Civil Liberties Union to fashion some solutions to the jail overcrowding problem. Gray has presided over a protracted federal court suit against the county filed in 1974.

ACLU attorney John Hagar, while praising the ability of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to maintain control in the jails, nevertheless said that overcrowding has hampered efforts to comply with some of Gray’s orders dealing with adequate time for inmates to eat their meals and to exercise.

Hagar said that some of the possible remedies being negotiated with the county include establishing a ceiling on the number of inmates at the largest facility--Men’s Central Jail--by speeding arraignments, arranging work release programs or forcing some of the outlying cities to issue citations to suspected misdemeanor offenders instead of having them arrested.

Coping With Problem

Meanwhile, sheriff’s officials cope with the problem.

“I don’t want to minimize our struggle, because we are clearly overcrowded, but we’re still doing it all,” said James W. Painter, chief of the custody division of the Sheriff’s Department. “Everybody gets fed, gets to court, gets to exercise. There’s a little violence, a little disruption, although there is overcrowding.”

Orange County also is struggling with serious jail overcrowding problems, and even with state jail bond construction grants, officials there are plagued by financing crises. A $63-million intake-release center is under construction, but the county needs both the 1,000-bed emergency facility near Anaheim Stadium and a much larger, 5,000-bed facility. Rural sites for such a facility are under study.

Last year Judge Gray held Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates and the Board of Supervisors in contempt of court, imposed fines and ordered a 1,500-inmate limit. A tent city was hastily erected at an honor farm, a minimum-security facility in Orange is being expanded, and a Superior Court judge two weeks ago authorized the release of some inmates up to five days before their terms expire.

Pick Anaheim Site

But there are still days when the inmate population exceeds the court-imposed limit. Faced with another contempt hearing last week, the Board of Supervisors angered the county’s biggest city by selecting an Anaheim site for an emergency jail.

Judge Gray, who also has jurisdiction over litigation involving the Los Angeles County jail system, ruled last Thursday that Orange County is making good-faith efforts to comply with his orders.

In Contra Costa County, Supervisor Tom Powers proposed using a hotel to house some inmates who would undergo various counseling programs as an alternative to confinement behind bars.

The concept is under review following the sheriff’s request for a declaration of emergency to speed construction of a new, 60-bed detention facility.

Jail Is a ‘Model’

Ironically, Contra Costa has the state’s lowest incarceration rate. Moreover, its main jail is the only California facility certified as a “model” jail by state and federal authorities. The federal government pays Contra Costa County to take law enforcement officials on tours of the jail and to provide “hands on” training to corrections officers from other jurisdictions. But the facility, built in 1980 to house 368 inmates, has a current population of between 500 and 600.

The emergency declaration in Contra Costa County followed a lock-down and racially related rioting in the main jail. The declaration gives the county a major advantage in dealing with jail overcrowding: Authority to sidestep some environmental review requirements, speeding site selection and construction.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Powers said he is willing to accept a new jail in his Contra Costa County district, where it is likely to be built.

“I wanted it in my district, and so did my constituents,” Powers said. “There are some neighborhood problems, and the school district isn’t happy about it. But we wanted it because it makes law enforcement better. Having a local jail means officers can spend more time out on patrol and less time transporting themselves and prisoners to and from a jail farther down the road.”

Times Staff Writer Glenn F. Bunting contributed to this report.