Downtown Jail to Stop Accepting Misdemeanor Cases

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has notified law enforcement agencies in San Diego, East County and South Bay that the central County Jail in downtown San Diego is too crowded to accept misdemeanor suspects any longer.

San Diego police and city officials have reacted by searching for a location for a temporary jail, possibly the old police station on Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

Officially beginning at 3:30 p.m. today, law enforcement agencies in the county have been instructed by the Sheriff’s Department to contact the central jail whenever they arrest somebody in connection with a misdemeanor offense.

If no space is available--which will probably be the case since the jail already holds 100 more inmates than allowed under a court order--the arresting authorities may either release the misdemeanor suspect on a written promise to appear in court, or transport him to the County Jail in Vista for booking if he is deemed to be potentially dangerous.

Includes Serious Cases

Misdemeanor suspects arrested for offenses not deemed serious already were either being released or not accepted at the County Jail, the Sheriff’s Department said. Under the order, even those deemed serious won’t be admitted.

For example, sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Liz Foster said, a serious misdemeanor suspect could include a person who waves a dangerous weapon at someone but does not assault the person, or a person who threatens a neighbor during an argument and ordinarily might be kept in jail until tempers cool.

Foster said the no-misdemeanor order was issued in part because overcrowding had created a tense situation at the central County Jail. Deputies have had to risk injury to break up numerous fights, and the new policy is for the safety of both prisoners and prison guards, she said.

Foster said she could not estimate how many misdemeanor suspects would be involved.

In a press release, Sheriff John Duffy, who is under a Superior Court order to limit the number of inmates at the central County Jail to 750, said the other four jails, which are already far beyond their holding capacity, will be expected to take in more people because they are not under a court order.

The Descanso jail houses 407 inmates and is rated to take in only 225. The County Jail in Chula Vista has a population of 622 in a structure suited to carry 192. The one in El Cajon is holding 424, but its rated capacity is 125. The County Jail in Vista holds 431 men with a rated capacity of 246. The women’s jail, Las Colinas in Santee, which is not affected by the Sheriff’s Department’s order, houses 447 inmates and has a rated capacity of 176.

The central jail is holding 850 felony and misdemeanor inmates.

Concern Over Spring Break

San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender said Duffy’s decision not to accept misdemeanor suspects is a severe test for the Police Department because most San Diego suspects are brought to the central jail.

Kolender said he was especially concerned because of the many vacationing students expected to visit San Diego in the coming spring break week.

“We expect a great influx of young people, college students, who come out here from all over,” Kolender said. “They’ll get drunk and get into fights, and we’ll have people who are arrested for narcotics. Those are the kind of people.”

San Diego police and city officials said they were searching throughout the city and county for abandoned buildings, empty lots or any other feasible area for a temporary jail facility.

“We’re not looking to blame anybody,” City Manager John Lockwood said. “By the same token, it’s a terrible hardship for our ability to provide good law and order. We’re trying to come up with temporary facilities.”

Kolender said he understood the dilemma and the actions taken by the Sheriff’s Department, and criticized the county Board of Supervisors for not acting on building new jails.

Supervisors Blamed

“The city has got a problem,” Kolender said. “I don’t really blame the Sheriff’s Department. If you’re going to pinpoint the responsibility, then it is with the Board of Supervisors. For a long time, we have been waiting to have a jail, and we’re still waiting movement toward that goal. We’re at that crisis now.”

The main choice for the Police Department appears to be the old police station at Harbor Drive and Martin Luther King Way, Kolender said. He added, however, that that is “one of about 20 sites that we’re looking at to house people over the weekend.”

Kolender said two van loads of suspects were taken to Vista Thursday by San Diego police officers. “It’s going to be filled before you know it, and I don’t think the people of Fallbrook are going to be happy about that,” he added.

San Diego County supervisors have been pushing ahead with plans to build a $72.5-million jail east of Otay Mesa. Uncertainties remain over how the county will acquire the 523-acre site and over an environmental report that has yet to be completed.

Jimmie L. Slack, legislative aide for Supervisor Leon Williams, said, “I’m sure that Chief Kolender is aware of the constraints that the supervisors are facing with regard to acquiring a site to construct on.”

Slack said the supervisors have given the go-ahead to place more beds at the Vista jail by summer and at the Descanso facility by November.

Steven White, chief assistant attorney general for California, said he could find no fault with the Sheriff’s Department because other county jails throughout the state are doing the same thing to combat the problem.