Bailey Proposes Taking Jails Away From Sheriff

Suggesting possibly sweeping changes in San Diego County’s law enforcement system, Supervisor George Bailey on Wednesday proposed that county officials study removing jails from Sheriff John Duffy’s control and begin contracting with cities to provide police protection in unincorporated areas.

Bailey’s suggestions, which, if adopted, would dramatically curtail Duffy’s authority and law enforcement turf, are included in a three-page memo in which the supervisor proposes that a board subcommittee be created to examine alternative ways to provide law enforcement throughout the county.

Although Bailey described his plan, scheduled to be debated by the board next week, as a step toward meeting the county’s changing law enforcement needs in a more economical manner, other county officials viewed it also as the political fallout from the bitter feud between Duffy and the board during recent budget hearings.

‘Take That, John!’

Last month, the supervisors, some of whom voiced frustration with what they saw as Duffy’s persistent grandstanding on the budget, rejected his request to increase his $90.5-million fiscal 1989 budget by $13 million, a decision that prompted Duffy to threaten reductions in many high-profile services within his department.

“You knew something to slap down (Duffy) was coming sooner or later,” an aide to one supervisor said. “Sure, these ideas might save money. But this also seems to be a way of saying, ‘Take that, John!’ ”

Bailey’s top aide, however, insisted that the rocky relationship between Duffy and the board was not a factor in Bailey’s proposal.

“That’s simply not my boss’ style,” said Bailey aide Dianne Jacob. “His No. 1 priority is law enforcement, and his only purpose is to not jeopardize that in any way.”

Two-Member Board Panel

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said late Wednesday that Duffy had not had sufficient time to review Bailey’s memo to comment on the plan.

Under Bailey’s proposal, a two-member board panel, in conjunction with Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey, County Counsel Lloyd Harmon, and representatives of the Grand Jury, criminal justice system, state legislators and community groups, would study “alternative ways to provide law enforcement services in (the county) and to maximize the limited resources which are available to the county.”

“The law enforcement needs of the unincorporated areas have changed in recent years,” Bailey said in the memo. “Incorporations and annexations have created a ‘patchwork’ of geographic areas to be served. Demands are increasing for many of the critical core services like homicide, drug enforcement, child abuse and communications center, yet the staff of these units has served both contract cities and unincorporated-area residents.”

Perhaps the most notable potential change suggested by Bailey--and the one likely to produce the most vigorous opposition from Duffy--deals with the possibility of creating a county Department of Corrections as an alternative to the current sheriff-operated jail system. When a similar board proposal surfaced in the 1970s, Duffy’s intense opposition caused the board to back down.

County officials said that, to their knowledge, Ventura and Santa Clara counties are the only counties in the state that operate separate corrections departments.

Bailey aide Jacob said that such a shift could save the county money by giving the board, rather than the sheriff, direct control over detention facilities. While the board now has authority over the sheriff’s overall budget, Duffy decides how to spend that money and how to allocate manpower within his department.

In particular, the board has pressed Duffy--with little success--to use corrections officers rather than sheriff’s deputies, whose salaries are higher, to staff the county’s six jails. Duffy argues that deputies are better trained and are needed to ensure security in the jails, where inmate populations are generally more than double their official capacity.

There are legal questions, however, about whether the board could remove the jails from Duffy’s jurisdiction. In the past, when confronted with what he viewed as improper board meddling in his department’s internal operations, Duffy has often argued that state law expressly gives county sheriffs authority over jail operations--a question now at issue in a lawsuit dealing with the Santa Clara Corrections Department.

County Counsel Lloyd Harmon, however, said that, although state statutes provide that the sheriff is “the keeper of the jail,” they also state that counties may establish a separate corrections department headed by an officer appointed by the board of supervisors.

Another possible cost-cutting idea that Bailey suggested be examined would require that the county be fully reimbursed for expenses connected with the sheriff’s provision of law enforcement services in incorporated cities.

During last summer’s budget hearings, Bailey said that, while the sheriff’s budget has more than tripled over the past decade, the population in the county’s unincorporated regions--Duffy’s primary area of responsibility--declined from 405,000 to 339,000. Over the same period, the population in cities where the sheriff provides law enforcement under contract has grown from 79,000 to 295,000, Bailey said.

In his memo, Bailey also suggested that the county review:

* The feasibility of contracting with city police departments or forming so-called joint powers agreements with several jurisdictions to protect certain unincorporated areas now patrolled by sheriff’s deputies.

* Methods to increase the board’s “participation in policy development and budgetary control” of the Sheriff’s Department.

* Policy changes designed to reduce the county’s liability for legal claims filed against the Sheriff’s Department.