Work-Furlough Inmates to Be Transferred to Halfway House

Inmates who spend nights in a jail near El Toro and days at their outside jobs eventually will be transferred to a halfway house in Buena Park under a plan approved Tuesday by Orange County supervisors.

Transfer of the work-furlough inmates from the James A. Musick branch jail is an effort to reduce jail overcrowding and was recommended by L.G. Grossman, the county’s consultant on jail overcrowding.

A staff report to the supervisors said the first 40 inmates are expected to be transferred on Dec. 1 to an existing halfway house in Buena Park operated by Orange County Halfway House Inc., a private, nonprofit organization. Another 40 will be transferred on Jan. 2.

The report said that in the fiscal year that ended June 30, the average daily work-furlough population was between 150 and 170. Lt. Richard J. Olson, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said the total Musick inmate population Tuesday was 963 men and 160 women.

‘Relatively Stable’

“The Orange County work-furlough population is a relatively stable and low-security risk group,” the report said.

County officials said most work-furlough inmates are serving jail sentences for drunk driving.

Supervisors at the halfway house will ensure that inmates return at night and report for work or other approved activities during the day.

The annual cost of the program was estimated at $851,676, compared to $897,608 to keep the inmates in jail.

Expansion of the work-furlough program is one of the steps the county has taken since 1985, when U.S. District Judge William P. Gray found county supervisors and the sheriff in contempt of court for not heeding his 1978 order to end overcrowding in the main men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana.