Supervisors Ask Grand Jury to Propose Specific Ways to Ease County Jail Crisis

In a counterattack on the Orange County 1986-87 Grand Jury, the Board of Supervisors reaffirmed Wednesday that solving jail overcrowding is its “No. 1 priority” and charged that critics have not proposed specific ways to ease the crisis.

Board Chairman Roger R. Stanton told the grand jury foreman during a Wednesday board meeting that jurors had an “obligation to clearly spell out what alternatives they have in mind” to solve the crisis.

Tuesday, the grand jury had warned that there was an immediate need for 300 more beds for maximum-security inmates of the jail.

Stanton noted that a new intake-and-release center adjacent to the overcrowded main men’s jail in Santa Ana will open in June, providing 380 more beds. He added that the court-appointed monitor of jail overcrowding had not indicated that the county was close to violating the jail population limit set by U.S. District Judge William P. Gray.

Letter From Grand Jurors

Stanton’s comments were made after the official presentation of the grand jury’s two-page letter to the supervisors by its foreman, James V. Robinson II.

Robinson said the inmate population at the jail “has reached a crisis point that requires immediate action on your (supervisors’) part.” He said current jail conditions “pose a danger to jail personnel as well as to inmates.”

“Our county has an immediate need for 300 additional maximum security beds,” Robinson said. “Alternatives for gaining these beds on a temporary basis are available. Unless these additional beds are made available within 30 days,” the population limit may be exceeded.

Sheriff Brad Gates told supervisors last May that he needed 300 beds for maximum-security prisoners and 300 additional beds for minimum-security inmates by the end of 1986, or Gray’s ceiling would be exceeded. He did not get those beds, but a variety of actions kept the inmate population below the limit.

Grand jurors said that Gates had twice repeated his warning that he needed more beds, and in February told County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish that the ceiling would be exceeded by mid-April unless more beds were provided. The intake-and-release center originally was scheduled to open in April.

$41 Million Budgeted

Gates and Parrish were unavailable for comment Wednesday, and supervisors said they were unaware of any April deadline.

Stanton said that in the past four years, the county has spent nearly $80 million on new jail facilities and personnel. He said $41 million was budgeted for jail construction and staff this year alone.

Judge Gray found the supervisors and Gates in contempt two years ago for not obeying his 1978 order to end jail overcrowding. He imposed population limits and appointed Lawrence G. Grossman to monitor the situation.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder told Robinson that she would be happy “to give you all the facts, which you obviously don’t have.”

Robinson said later that the supervisors had reacted as he expected. He said grand jurors had discussed jail problems with Gates, Grossman, and, briefly, with Gray. He said they had not discussed the issue with the supervisors.

Robinson again expressed concern that as the population in the jail has dropped from approximately 2,200 at the time of Gray’s 1985 ruling to about 1,300 now, inmates accused of less serious crimes have been released or sent to branch jails. That has left the main jail housing inmates who are accused of more serious crimes and who are more likely to be a threat to guards and other inmates, he said.