Civilian Personnel Versus Deputies at the County Jail

In reading your editorial “A Jail Proposal With Merit” (July 6), I agree that the guidance of the county government rests with the Board of Supervisors. The board has the difficult responsibility to operate and shape the county government in a form which serves the public efficiently.

As an elected official, I am dedicated to assist the board in providing quality services at minimum costs. It is my responsibility to assist the supervisors in reviewing any direction, method or structure which may potentially reduce the jail population or the cost of operating the jail system.

Your editorial, however, leaves the reader with the impression that the formation of a corrections department and use of civilian corrections officers is a panacea to reducing the operating costs of our jails without further study or analysis. This may not be the case. This rationale seems to be centered on the rather large assumption that corrections officers can be easily recruited to work for lower pay, with a limited career ladder, requiring far less training and still do the job more efficiently, safely and economically than deputy sheriffs.

In July, 1983, the Arthur Young Co. completed an intensive management audit of the Sheriff’s Department. The audit had been initiated by the supervisors as part of an ongoing effort to systematically review all county services. The study pointed out that the “supposition that the establishment of a corrections department will resolve these problems is difficult to accept if such a department:

“Operates with no better facilities than the Orange County Sheriff’s Department currently does.

“Has no more staffing than is currently provided.

“Has the same number of inmates to supervise.”

Most jails in California use a combination of civilian and sworn staff. You clearly pointed that out to your readers. You failed, however, to point out that we have been doing that very thing in Orange County for many years.

You should know that approximately 38% of the county’s jail staff are civilian personnel who supervise inmates and lend support services where security demands allow. I supplied this information to you in my letter dated July 9, 1985, in response to your editorial “Why Not Civilians As Jailers” (June 19, 1985). You seem intent on overlooking the facts.

We choose to call our civilian staff correctional services technicians rather than corrections officers. That is really the major difference between Orange County Jail and some of the other county jails in California, who in some cases are following our lead.

Your editorial portrays our deputy sheriffs as dissatisfied employees with low morale who have resigned themselves to doing “jail time” and constitute a fiscal extravagance. For the 38% of our civilian work force, you have again ignored their existence.

Your editorial presents a distorted endorsement of a proposal which has yet to be reviewed.

The citizens of Orange County must be wondering, as I do, why you continue to ignore the facts when they are clearly available to you.

We have an excellent approach to jail staffing in Orange County. If there is a better way we can maintain our present standards and level of safety for less money, I will be willing to assist us in moving toward that goal.

BRAD GATES

Sheriff-Coroner