At-Home Detention Asked to Ease Jail Overcrowding

Twenty-five “low-risk” Orange County Jail inmates who would otherwise be behind bars may spend their detention at home, hooked to an electronic system that ensures that they stay there, under a pilot program recommended Thursday to the Board of Supervisors.

A county administrative office report on ways to ease the overcrowding at the County Jail said the electronic system is “reliable and inexpensive” and can be used to monitor people who would otherwise be part of the jail’s work furlough program.

It recommended a one-year test of the program by the Probation Department at a cost of $116,772. No target date has been set for the test.

The county would lease equipment, including electronic signaling devices mounted on wristbands, verifier boxes attached to home telephones, a base computer and a robot telephone dialer.

Random Calls

The computer would phone the houses at random times when the inmates were supposed to be there, and the inmates would insert the electronic wristlet into the verifier box. In addition, someone would visit the homes unannounced and at unexpected times two to four times a week.

“Once the effectiveness and safety of the program has been tested and proven, there is a large capacity for expansion, both within the work furlough program and with other segments of the jail population,” said the report.

The report also recommended expansion of the county’s parole program to free beds and save money. That proposal would increase the number of inmates on parole from approximately five at a time to 50, the report said.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the report’s recommendations Tuesday.

Last month, supervisors were told the cost of operating existing jails and adding new ones could total $1.3 billion over the next 15 years. The costs of all jail-related programs may triple from $32.3 million annually to $97.4 million a year by 2000, a county report said.

The supervisors and Sheriff Brad Gates were found in contempt of court last year for failing to comply with a federal judge’s 1978 order to ease overcrowding in the main men’s jail in Santa Ana.

The number of inmates in the jail has since been reduced, largely through expansion of branch jails, and supervisors have picked one site for a new jail and are searching for another.

Parole Expansion

On July 9, the supervisors ordered development of a pilot program for in-home incarceration and expansion of the county parole program, among other measures, to reduce jail overcrowding.

The report issued Thursday said inmates taking part in the in-home program would have served half their sentences but still have 30 days or more to serve, would be on work furlough status, would live in the county, have a telephone at home, be employed full time and agree to conditions of their release.

It said drug abusers, inmates with a pattern of violent behavior, those who pose a threat to the community and those with a history of violating jail rules would be ineligible.

The supervisors also had requested a study of the feasibility of setting up sobering-up stations.

Thursday’s report concluded that although that idea has “strong support from the cities in the county,” they have expressed no interest in “sharing the financial costs.”

A sobering-up station that could accommodate 15 to 25 people would cost an estimated $285,000, the report said.

Because of overcrowding at the jail, the Sheriff’s Department last May stopped booking people for public drunkenness, although drunk drivers are still jailed. Public inebriates now are turned over to a friend or relative, or left in a city jail.