$56 Million of ‘Emergency’ Aid Earmarked for Jails

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor on Tuesday released details of her request for $103 million in state and federal assistance in the city’s war on drugs, issuing a plan that would devote $56 million to the construction and operation of jails.

O’Connor and the emergency council that was formed after the city declared a drug and gang “state of emergency” May 23 want the money to build a 750-bed pre-arraignment detention facility that would cost $37.8 million over three years and a 256-bed post-sentencing jail for drug offenders that would cost $18.2 million during the same period.

The budget was released shortly after O’Connor, San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos and their police chiefs met in O’Connor’s office with federal drug czar William Bennett to ask for federal assistance in battling drug- and gang-related violence.

‘We Can’t Wait Another 10 Years’

O’Connor, who presented the plan to Bennett, said San Diego’s streets are “salvageable if we attack it now. We can’t wait another 10 years. We can’t wait another three years.”

The mayor, on May 23, asked Deukmejian to declare a state of emergency and grant San Diego $34 million in aid from the state’s $2.5-billion budget surplus to fight drug- and gang-related violence that resulted in four deaths and 43 drive-by shootings during the first four months of the year.

The governor has not formally responded, but his spokesmen have questioned whether the gambit is a publicity stunt and have said that the money would have to be allocated through the legislative budget process where it would compete with requests from throughout the state.

On May 30, O’Connor said that $34 million is not enough, and the request has since grown into the $103-million spending plan released Tuesday.

The spending blueprint, which would devote more than half the funds to jails, reflects Police Chief Bob Burgreen’s often-repeated belief that detention facilities are the city’s top need.

Quicker to Build a Private Facility

The budget envisions a privately operated facility that would be cheaper to operate and quicker to build than a government facility. It also notes that the cost to the city for bed space could be reduced if the jail were on federal surplus land at a military reservation.

Over the next three years, the grant request also seeks $16.8 million for 89 more police officers in gang and drug enforcement units, $6.9 million to build and operate four more courtrooms, $13.5 million for probation and drug treatment programs, $5.7 million for 28 more staffers in Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller’s office and $4 million for community programs.