City May Turn to Private Jail to Cope With Crisis

Blaming what it calls a crisis created by the number of misdemeanor suspects released from custody before arraignment, the San Diego city manager’s office is proposing to build a privately operated jail that would hold as many as 200 arrestees for several days.

Assistant City Manager Jack McGrory, saying that the city will need the temporary facility for at least three years while the county proceeds with its jail expansion, is proposing to finance its construction and operation with funds from the half-cent sales tax approved by voters last June. The tax will generate $1.6 billion over the next 10 years.

“We’ve got a crisis and we want to deal with it,” McGrory said Monday.

‘We Have to Do Something’

“I think we have to do something, when we’re hearing that it could be five years until any jails are built,” said San Diego City Councilwoman Gloria McColl, who heads the council’s Public Services and Safety Committee, which will discuss the proposal Wednesday.

Neither official, however, has addressed the sensitive issue of where to put the jail. Asked if she would accept the jail in her council district, McColl said that would “depend on where it would be.”

In a report to McColl’s committee, McGrory said severe crowding of county jails has led to the routine release of persons suspected of crimes including assault and battery; carrying concealed, loaded firearms; obstructing an officer in the peformance of his duty and attempting to evade an officer.

According to statistics released during last year’s campaign for the sales tax increase, jail crowding had resulted in the immediate release of more than 100 people every day.

‘Not Going to Jail’

“Misdemeanor suspects increasingly view their contacts with the police as but a minor delay in their daily operations,” McGrory wrote. “They know that they are not going to jail. As soon as the law enforcement presence leaves, the activity starts anew.”

A solution may be to solicit bids from private companies to build and operate a jail that could hold up to 200 people for the two or three days between their arrests and arraignment.

A privately operated jail could be run for $3 million to $4 million annually, including construction costs, a price tag considerably lower than the cost of a public facility for the same number of arrestees, McGrory said.