Jail Space Must Be Found Quickly, Grand Jury Warns

The Orange County Board of Supervisors came under pressure to solve the jail-overcrowding problem from a new source Tuesday, with the county grand jury warning that additional space for 300 more maximum-security beds must be found immediately.

The grand jurors said the weeding out of less-dangerous inmates from the jail to comply with a court-imposed limit has left a population of hard-core, maximum-security inmates who pose a threat to each other and to jail guards.

Panel members said that “alternatives for gaining these (300) beds on a temporary basis are available,” but they did not spell out what they meant.

Grand Jury Foreman James V. Robinson II said in an interview that “the best people to ask” about the availability of the beds “are the sheriff and the supervisors.” He said that if the grand jury pointed to locations, “we (would) begin to start taking sides.”

Robinson, author of the letter to the Board of Supervisors, said it would be formally presented to the board today.

Sheriff Brad Gates was unavailable for comment and aides to supervisors said their bosses either had not yet seen the letter or were withholding comment. Gates asked the supervisors nearly a year ago to find 300 maximum-security beds and another 300 minimum-security beds, but there has been no action on those requests.

“The inmate population in the main jail facility has reached a crisis point that requires immediate action on your (supervisors’) part,” the letter said.

To comply with two-year-old federal court ceilings on the number of inmates in the main men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana, officials have refused to accept people accused of minor offenses--such as petty theft and drunk and disorderly conduct--and farmed out minimum-security inmates to branch jails.

As a result, only maximum-security inmates are held in the jail now and “this population is rising steadily,” the letter said.

‘Conditions Pose a Danger’

“It is no longer possible to maintain the segregation and isolation that many of these inmates require. Current jail conditions pose a danger to jail personnel as well as to inmates.”

Robinson said the increasing danger “has been developing for a considerable period of time,” as lesser offenders left the jail or never entered, and as the jail population increasingly was made up of people charged with more serious crimes.

“To the degree that the population is a more concentrated group of relatively dangerous people,” the situation has worsened in the past year, he said. The jail population “was more diluted a year ago.”

The current maximum at the jail is 1,291 inmates on the housing floors. An additional 380 beds will be available in June when an intake and release center next to the jail opens. Gates has requested 600 more beds in addition to those in the center.

The grand jury letter said that unless the 300 additional beds are made available within 30 days, there will be no way to meet the judge’s ceiling and also “properly maintain jail security. We urge you to act immediately to gain these additional beds.”

County officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said they were uncertain what the grand jurors meant, although they speculated that the alternatives could refer to empty beds at the James A. Musick branch jail near El Toro.

Protests From Residents

That facility, however, is limited to minimum-security inmates and area residents have vociferously protested any possibility of putting maximum-security inmates there.

Dan Wooldridge, a spokesman for Supervisor Don R. Roth, said the supervisor “appreciated the grand jury’s concern” about jail overcrowding. But, referring to the letter, he said: “We have no specific comment and look forward to hearing (from) them (today).”

Last week, the county’s Municipal Court judges asked Gates to stop the “wholesale” release of people arrested on misdemeanor charges, saying that the 11-month-old practice was illegal in many cases.

Gates agreed that he was “breaking the law every day” but said he had no choice if he wanted to comply with U.S. District Judge William P. Gray’s limits on the jail population.

After finding Gates and the supervisors in contempt of court two years ago for not meeting his 1978 order to end overcrowding at the jail, Gray warned that, if necessary, the county might have to bunk inmates in a hotel.

Robinson countered by saying: “I suppose that in the worst case we could hire a Holiday Inn.”

Robinson’s letter said the grand jury has been studying the jail problem and will make its final report at the end of its term in June. But it said current conditions necessitated the preliminary report.

‘Negative Effect’

The letter said a survey of all chiefs of police in Orange County showed a unanimous belief that actions taken to relieve overcrowding “are having a negative effect on law enforcement throughout the county. Arrest decisions are being influenced by considerations of jail-space availability.”

In an attempt to speed construction of a new jail, the supervisors a year ago picked a county-owned site near Anaheim Stadium to build a 1,581-inmate facility.

Hours before the grand jury’s letter was delivered Tuesday, the supervisors picked First Boston Corp. to handle the $140-million bond issue to build the jail and the law firm of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe to act as bond counsel.