Transfers, Halfway Houses Seen as Ways to Ease Jail Crowding

Orange County’s special jail consultant recommended Friday that inmates be transferred to branch facilities to relieve overcrowding at the main men’s jail in Santa Ana and that inmates on work furlough be sent to halfway houses.

In a report delivered to the supervisors’ offices, consultant Lawrence G. Grossman had 11 suggestions for the board and Sheriff Brad Gates on ways to ease jail crowding.

The report said inmates should be checked periodically to see if their classifications as minimum-, medium- or maximum-security risks are still appropriate. More frequent reclassifications will allow transfers to branch jails and will free beds in the main jail, Grossman said.

The central jail is a maximum-security facility holding both sentenced inmates and those awaiting trial. The Theo Lacy branch jail in Orange is a minimum-security institution also housing both sentenced offenders and prisoners awaiting trial. The James A. Musick branch jail near El Toro is also a minimum-security facility but houses only sentenced inmates.

‘Denies Flexibility’

“I believe the present (classification) system, although very good, is somewhat restrictive and denies the flexibility needed for maximum utilization of beds, especially in light of recent staff increases and upgrading of security features at Theo Lacy and James A. Musick,” Grossman said in his report.

The consultant said 200 beds could be freed by removing inmates on the work-furlough program from Musick and placing them instead at a halfway house.

“These inmates present no threat to the community and are free during working hours and travel time,” he said. Work-furlough inmates spend nights and weekends behind bars but go out into the community to work during the week.

He said that changing the system to allow inmates awaiting trial to be transferred to Musick also would free beds in the central jail. His report stressed that the accused offenders who are transferred should still be minimum-security inmates.

In another recommendation that has been resisted by judges in the past, Grossman suggested that men accused of crimes be arraigned on weekends and nights rather than just on weekdays.

Two years ago, U.S. District Judge William P. Gray found Gates and the supervisors in contempt of court for not complying with his 1978 order to improve conditions at the jail.

Gray appointed Grossman to monitor the county’s efforts to end jail overcrowding. In January, the county hired Grossman as its own consultant on jail issues.

‘A Yeoman’s Job’

“The Sheriff’s Department has done a ‘yeoman’s’ job, and they have done it in a professional manner,” Grossman said in his report, which he personally delivered to supervisors’ offices Friday.

“The county has developed an ambitious and progressive construction plan to meet the needs of Orange County. However, there are no ‘quick fixes,’ and if there were they rarely fix anything. We will, without question, need to continue every alternative available to us until our building program is completed.”

The county plans to open an intake-and-release center next to the main jail in July that is expected to relieve overcrowding to some degree. The Musick and Lacy facilities have been expanded, and there are plans to build a 1,500-inmate jail in Anaheim. Also in the planning stage is a jail of 4,000 or 5,000 beds at a location yet to be chosen.

A spokesman for Gates said he had not yet seen the report and could not comment.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton said he had “gone over the highlights,” and “I think we got a good report.”

“I think the recommendations he has made, if we can implement a major portion of these, we can take a lot of pressure off,” Stanton said. “I think the verdict is still out in terms of what can and cannot be implemented.”

Stanton said Sheriff’s Department representatives and county officials will meet next week to seek agreement on “which recommendations are appropriate.”