Gates Seeks Increase in Jail Population Ceiling

Because of new overcrowding problems in Orange County’s jail system, a federal judge will be asked to raise the population ceiling at the main jail, Sheriff Brad Gates said Wednesday, adding that he will meet with county officials today to discuss stopgap solutions.

“We’re in serious trouble,” Gates said Wednesday. “If we don’t do something soon, we won’t be able to comply with the judge’s order.”

U.S. District Judge William P. Gray has ordered Gates not to exceed a 1,400 population ceiling at the main men’s jail in Santa Ana.

Gates said he will soon ask Gray to raise that limit to 1,481, which matches the number of beds now at the jail.

Letter to Supervisors

Last week Gates wrote a letter to the Board of Supervisors, warning them that there was an “immediate need” for another 300 maximum-security beds and that the county could end up in violation of Gray’s orders on jail overcrowding without them.

But three supervisors interviewed Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with Gates’ letter. While they are aware of the overcrowding problem, they said, they are looking to the sheriff to help provide solutions.

Supervisor Bruce Nestande questioned whether Gates was “posturing,” and Supervisor Harriett Wieder was upset that Gates seemed to be dumping the problem in the board’s lap.

“On the one hand, (Gates) does not want us to tell him how to run his jail,” she said. “ . . . And on the other hand, he asks us what to do” about overcrowding.

Problem Recognized

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley questioned whether it was possible to provide Gates with an immediate solution. “When you’re talking about bricks and mortar, that doesn’t just happen overnight,” Riley said.

Still, the supervisors recognize Gates has a problem on his hands at the jail.

County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish, who will meet with Gates today, cautioned that he meets with the sheriff frequently and today’s meeting “is nothing out of the ordinary.”

But Parrish added that he recognizes the county needs more jail beds and needs “to look at the options that exist and how to find solutions, short-term and long-term.”

Gates uses current figures to support his concern.

In the last six months, the overall county jail population has risen from a weekly average of 3,189 to 3,318, despite the fact that during that time Gates has begun turning loose almost everyone arrested on suspicion of committing a misdemeanor.

In addition to the weekday population ceiling of 1,400, Judge Gray, who has been overseeing Orange County’s jail conditions for 1 1/2 years, has set a limit on the main men’s jail population of 1,450 on weekends and 1,500 on three-day holidays.

Wednesday, the population was 1,395.

Gates says he already has transferred more inmates from maximum security to the two minimum-security branch jails--Theo Lacy in Orange and James A. Musick near El Toro--than he would prefer.

The only maximum-security county jail for men is the one in Santa Ana. Because of classification problems--career criminals cannot be housed with new offenders, for example--jail officials say they cannot comply with a strict application of Judge Gray’s 1,400 ceiling.

Stretched to the Limit

Gates told the board he has already stretched to the limit the number of inmates he can release from custody.

In recent months Gates has used three measures to keep down the population:

- The use of citation-release, through which people arrested on misdemeanors are given citations by police instead of being taken to jail. Gates said he intended citation release to be used only in an emergency but that, “since August, it has been necessary to operate this procedure on a constant basis.” Nearly 5,000 such citations have been issued since April, he said.

- Refusal to accept inmates arrested for common public drunkenness. Gates said in his letter that he had never wanted drunks at the jail but believes it should take them because the county has no detoxification center. Still, Gates said, not taking the drunks has had an impact on saving bed space at the jail.

- Accelerating releases. State law permits Gates, with court approval, to speed up the release of some of the sentenced inmates from three to five days. Gates says about 3,000 inmates have been released early under this plan in the last seven months.

But all of these measures together, Gates said, are not enough.

Supervisors Want Suggestions

“In spite of continual effort, current trends indicate that we will not be able to comply with the court mandates within the coming months,” Gates told the board in his letter.

But board members complained Wednesday that Gates had no specific suggestion for how to solve the problem.

Gates said in an interview that “obviously some kind of facility will have to be rented, or leased, immediately. We recognize you can’t build a facility overnight.”

Some jail overcrowding should be alleviated when the new 380-bed Intake/Release Center, under construction in the block behind the main jail, is completed.

But Gates said he does not expect it to help much, because by then, Gray has indicated, the court order will be to reduce the main men’s jail population to about 1,250. Also, Gates said, it looks as if the Intake/Release Center, scheduled for completion next April, may not be ready until midsummer.