UC Votes to Sue Over Expansion of Jail in Orange

The University of California Board of Regents has voted to sue Orange County in an attempt to block a proposed expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange, a UC spokeswoman disclosed Tuesday.

The vote to oppose the expansion next to the UC Irvine Medical Center came in a closed session at the regents’ regular meeting last week in Santa Barbara, spokeswoman Lauri Itow said in a phone interview from her office in Berkeley.

County officials responded by charging that the regents are not genuinely concerned about the jail expansion but rather are escalating a stubborn confrontation between the university and the county over a proposed parking structure for the medical center.

Supervisors Voted to Sue

Orange County supervisors voted last month to sue the university over the parking lot, saying it could aggravate traffic congestion on a short access road into the Manchester Complex, which includes the medical center, the jail and several other county facilities.

Filing of the lawsuit has been delayed, however, as negotiations continue.

County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish said Tuesday he had not heard of the regents’ vote.

“It’s not good news, but I must say, much of what the regents do is not good news,” he said. “If it was against the law for the regents to do silly things, they’d all be in jail.”

Another county official said the vote seemed to be based on the premise that “a good defense is a good offense.”

Itow said UC attorneys acknowledged a link between the jail litigation and the parking lot dispute.

“Whether or not the (jail) suit is filed by the University of California is dependent on this other matter,” she said. “What they did was authorize legal counsel to file a suit.”

Itow said she could not disclose the university’s specific complaints about the jail expansion. No representative of the university has appeared at public hearings on the project, including one last month in which the supervisors cleared the way for construction by adopting the final environmental impact report.

County officials did say, however, that the university has written letters expressing concern about the expansion.

Jail Is Overcrowded

The county has a desperate jail overcrowding problem and has been pushing to begin construction at the Theo Lacy facility in the next few weeks. The project has been stalled throughout the past year, partly because of a lawsuit filed by the city of Orange.

Orange officials are scheduled to meet with representatives of the county this week. The Orange City Council will then decide whether to continue with its lawsuit. City officials have argued that the expansion will cause traffic problems and jeopardize public safety.

The project is intended to increase the capacity of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail from 622 beds to 1,326. Largely to mitigate the concerns of Orange, the supervisors voted to prohibit the housing of maximum-security prisoners at the jail.

The expansion is expected to cost about $45 million.

In addition to the jail, the county and UCI Medical Center are planning more than $200 million in other major construction projects this year at the Manchester Complex.

Planning Court Facility

The county is planning a new juvenile court facility and two high-rise parking structures there. The medical center, which has a contract to treat inmates from the county’s jail system, is planning several new structures at the site.

The disputed access road, Dawn Road, is used by most of the facilities at the Manchester Complex, and both sides agree that the road is owned by the county.

The county has taken the position that it should be consulted about any project that will affect traffic on the road. County officials have offered to settle the dispute with the university in return for compensation for “the loss of control of our property,” said R.A. Scott, director of the county’s General Services Agency.

The hospital has claimed, however, that because of its longtime use of the road, it has a legal right to access. It was scheduled to begin construction of the parking structure late last month, but the project was delayed while the two sides continued to negotiate.