A Sobering Necessity

Overcrowded conditions at Orange County Jail have finally brought about one change that should have been made years ago. Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates has advised the county’s police departments that they can no longer bring in drunks off the street.

That’s good news. Drunks never should have been dumped in the jail in the first place. It’s archaic, insensitive and wasteful to clog up the jails and court system with drunks who, for their sake and the community’s, should be in a recovery center, not a jail cell.

Gates’ action, however, now means that they’ll be a lot more visible, and vulnerable, as some police officers, with no place to take drunks, will leave them to wander the streets.

What’s needed now, more than ever, are sobering-up stations, or detoxification centers. Other counties, such as San Diego and Los Angeles, have them. Gates has recommended that they be built here. And about three years ago the county was working on establishing one after a task force suggested a centrally located site in Santa Ana. But Santa Ana, which historically has arrested and lodged more public drunks in the County Jail than any other city, strongly objected. Nothing has been done since.

The county Board of Supervisors and the cities cannot continue to ignore the issue, which is a medical and social problem, not a criminal one. And it’s not just chronic street drunks that are involved. Thousands of everyday people each year on occasion have too much to drink at a ballgame, concert or other public place. They, too, should be taken to a detox center. And the communities whose residents don’t want a detox center in their neighborhood should think about the alternative--drunks staggering down their streets with no place else to go.