Court Ruling : Santee Loses Bid to Halt Jail Plans

The City of Santee lost a court battle Friday in its bid to halt the expansion of the Las Colinas County Jail in the East County city.

Superior Court Judge Andrew G. Wagner denied Santee’s request to stop the County of San Diego from going ahead with the 600-bed expansion, which is intended to temporarily ease systemwide jail overcrowding.

Santee officials brought the court action after the county Board of Supervisors voted July 8 to add the beds for male inmates in temporary quarters adjacent to Las Colinas, a detention center for women located on county land inside Santee.

Residents of Santee opposed the move, saying it would be tantamount to putting a “barbed wire concentration camp” in the center of their city.

Environmental Report

On Friday, Santee’s attorney, Donald F. McLean, argued in court that the jail expansion also violated the city’s “environmental rights” because county officials are ignoring state law that requires an environmental impact study before the project can get under way. He said county officials are already gearing up to hire 154 guards and spend nearly $1 million on the project even though the environmental report is still unfinished.

In addition, McLean said the county’s project is in “direct, violent conflict” with Santee’s community plan--a blueprint for growth that cannot be altered without the completion of an environmental report.

But county officials prevailed against Santee on Friday after arguing that the study is already under way and will be completed before a final decision is made about expanding the Santee jail.

Deputy County Counsel Lew Zollinger said Friday that the Board of Supervisors’ vote in July was merely “an idea,” and that a final determination will be made after the supervisors review the completed environmental study, as well as schematic designs of the facility and an analysis of how much the expansion will cost--all reports that may be done by November.

Opposition Acknowledged

In making his ruling, Wagner sided with the county, but he acknowledged the fact that any community could be expected to fight the construction of jail facilities within its boundaries.

“I don’t know of a single community that would say, ‘Please, bring your jails to us,’ ” Wagner said.

“There’s no question that an environmental impact report is required. There is no question an environmental impact report is being prepared,” Wagner said.

“The only question is: Is it being prepared quickly enough? I think so,” the judge said.

After the hearing, Rich Robinson, the county’s director of special projects, said the environmental study would be completed next month and the Board of Supervisors could make a final decision on the Santee expansion by November.

Robinson said the county owns 371 acres within the City of Santee, and Los Colinas detention center for women takes up 10 acres of that. He said the proposed temporary, 600-bed expansion for men would require only another four acres of county land because some of the new beds would be put on the current Los Colinas compound.

Robinson also said claims by Santee officials that the expanded jail would look like a “concentration camp” were exaggerated.

“As part of the hysteria that is being created, there are misrepresentations being made,” Robinson said.

Decision Not a Surprise

McLean told reporters that Wagner’s decision against his client was not a “surprise,” but he predicted it would be the “first round of what I think is going to be a long struggle.”

Santee bears a “disproportionate” share of inmates, when compared to other cities in San Diego County, he said, and the number of inmates housed in the city is 20 times more per capita than those jailed in San Diego.

McLean said Santee officials will now have to decide if they want to appeal Wagner’s decision, as well as challenge the environmental impact study. Meanwhile, the attorney said he hoped continued publicity about the jail expansion would kill the project.

“My biggest hope is to simply put the light of day on the proposal because this proposal is a bad one,” said McLean. “And bad ideas from government, when exposed to enough light, eventually shrivel up and die.”