Vacant Factory Suggested as Temporary Jail Site

A potential new site for a temporary jail surfaced Wednesday when a county grand juror told a San Diego City Council committee that a former Kearny Mesa factory is an ideal site to house short-term prisoners.

The council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee instructed the city manager’s office to investigate use of the former Sanyo factory at 4000 Ruffin Road and report back to the Public Services and Safety Committee next month.

Bill Bell, chairman of the grand jury’s jails committee, told committee members that the former factory is completely fenced in, has few windows, has 968 parking spaces, is equipped with indoor sprinklers, is easily accessible, and is available now if money could be found to turn it into a temporary jail.

The building’s major problem is that, at 415,000 square feet, or about nine acres, it could be too big. Bell said a new facility should be at least 40,000 square feet.

But with the county currently releasing 2,300 misdemeanor arrestees each month and plans for jail expansion in Santee threatened by a lawsuit, the grand jury is urging city and county officials to get to work on alternate temporary jail sites.

Tax Up to Voters

Long-term plans to alleviate jail overcrowding include a 900-bed jail on east Otay Mesa scheduled to be completed no earlier than late 1989. Future jail and court construction costs would be financed by proposed sales tax if county voters approve a half-cent increase in June.

“Soon, we are going to become an Atlanta or a Newark if something isn’t done,” Bell said in an interview. “You can’t keep releasing 2,300 people per month onto the streets.”

Bell asked to address the council’s Public Facilities and Recreation committee after his group toured six buildings it believed might serve as temporary jails.

Previous interest in a facility has focused on a Balboa Park Naval Hospital building soon to be vacated by the Navy and the old San Diego Police Department headquarters on Market Street.

But Balboa Park advocates have voiced strong opposition to the idea of putting a jail in one of the city’s premier parks, and the police headquarters is sitting over a 10,000- to 20,000-gallon underground pool of leaked gasoline that the city estimates will take a year to remove once pumping begins in the next few months.

Other Buildings

The grand jury committee also has looked at the Ratner Building at 14th and G streets, the Russ Building at 12th Avenue and Broadway, and two marine terminal warehouses. The Ratner building is not available because it has been turned into a cultural center and the Russ building would require extensive renovations, Bell said.

Rich Robinson, director of the county’s office of special projects, told the committee that the Santee jail expansion faces crucial tests next month.

County supervisors are scheduled to hold a public hearing to decide whether to certify an environmental impact report, and a court hearing will be held on a county lawsuit filed in an attempt to obtain 112 sewer hookups needed to build a new 600-bed temporary facility for men next to the Las Colinas County Jail for women.

Plans for the expansion also include 192 more beds at the women’s prison. The City of Santee has filed a lawsuit to halt construction of the men’s facility.

Robinson said that even if additional jail space is located, the bulk of the cost of a new jail is operational expenses. More than $4 million of the $6.2 million allocated by county supervisors for the Santee jail expansion will be used to run the new facility, he said.