Limiting Jails to Santa Ana

I find the idea of limiting all future jail sites to within Santa Ana extremely unfair (“1,000 Begin Drive to Limit All Future Jails to Santa Ana,” Oct. 15). I also find appalling the arrogance and petty selfishness of the various citizen groups involved, in addition to the self-serving rhetoric of the two county supervisors.

What gives them the right to use Santa Ana as a dumping ground? Just because Santa Ana has a lower level of income and a higher percentage of minority residents does not mean that the city should not receive the same level of respect afforded to other Orange County cities.

Santa Ana has more residents than any other city in the county. Right now, it has more than its fair share of jail space. It is only fair and correct to spread jail sites to all parts of the county, especially to the more remote areas that do not have Santa Ana’s population density.

Therefore, such places as Yorba Linda, Irvine, Newport Beach, Anaheim Hills and Huntington Beach should also receive serious consideration as jail sites. A city’s high income level should not serve as an excuse for it to avoid the necessary, though unpleasant, services a county must provide.

The same “white-flight” mentality that drove these residents to Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda is also used to justify this repugnant idea. I resent the total disregard and disrespect these people are showing the city and people of Santa Ana.

It is time that the rest of Orange County stop regarding Santa Ana as its garbage dump and start performing its fair share, regarding county services. There is nothing “criminal” about putting an Orange County jail in Gypsum Canyon.

The real crime is to saddle the City of Santa Ana with all the burdens of unpleasant county services, while everyone else comes off scot-free.

DANIEL PAYNE

Huntington Beach