Study Planned of Regional Jail on Desert Site

Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth on Tuesday got the qualified support of his colleagues to launch an in-depth study of the feasibility of joining in the construction and operation of a large regional jail in Riverside County.

If approved, a regional jail proposed for a remote desert area 50 miles east of Palm Springs would eliminate the need to build a new jail now scheduled for construction in Gypsum Canyon, which Roth opposes.

Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Roger R. Stanton, who voted in August for the Gypsum Canyon site near Anaheim Hills, said they still support that location.

“I can’t remember a time when I gave a speech . . . when the jail issue didn’t come up and people would say, ‘Why don’t you put it in the desert?’ ” said Stanton, whose district is concentrated in central Orange County.

While Stanton said he would continue to support his prior vote designating Gypsum Canyon for a 6,720-bed jail, he also urged the board to seriously study the desert site proposal.

“We can’t just put our heads in the sand . . . ,” he said. “This proposal is worthy of support. I want to commend you . . . if this happens to pan out, congratulations to all of us.”

Riverside County Supervisor Patricia (Corky) Larson said Tuesday that under the proposed regional plan, Orange County would pay to build the facility and Riverside County would lease space in the jail for its prisoners.

Roth said a preliminary study has indicated that the jail could be built in the desert at a savings of up to $120 million.

But Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates, who attended Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting on another issue, said outside the Santa Ana hearing room that the county has spent more than $7 million so far on the Gypsum Canyon site. If the supervisors change course now, he said, that money would be lost and it could mean years more in delays in constructing a badly needed new jail.

Gates said other studies have rejected the idea of a desert jail as being too expensive and “too hard to get to,” adding that the proposed site in eastern Riverside County would be a four-hour drive from Orange County.

One of the studies cited by Gates--a 1987 study of jail needs by the state Corrections Advisory Committee--only briefly discussed regional jails, calling them “impractical” because in many cases it would “create insurmountable transportation problems and increased personnel costs” for those financially responsible for the regional facility.

“This (Roth’s proposal) will not save money in the long run,” Gates said, adding that the real cost of a jail was not the construction and the land, but the cost to operate it year after year.

Furthermore, Gates contended, jail overcrowding and crime are the county’s problems. Like the problems regarding sites for trash dumps and airports, they must be solved by the county and not put in someone else’s back yard, he said.

County supervisors, after struggling for years to decide on a site for a new jail, chose the Gypsum Canyon location on a 3-2 vote in July, 1987. The board majority reaffirmed that controversial decision last August when it voted 3 to 2 to approve an environmental impact report on Gypsum Canyon. Supervisors Roth and Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose district includes the Gypsum Canyon area, have cast the dissenting votes.

The cities of Anaheim, Yorba Linda and Corona have filed suit challenging the environmental study as flawed. And Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail, a group that includes residents of both Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda, has qualified an initiative for the June, 1990, ballot that is aimed at preventing the jail’s construction in Gypsum Canyon.

As for the regional plan, Riverside County Supervisor Larson said in a telephone interview Tuesday that no specific site has been chosen, although early discussion has centered on an area southwest of Eagle Mountain in eastern Riverside County. Larson said the mayor of Blythe last weekend asked her “not to rule out” his city as a possible site. She added that towns in Riverside County and elsewhere in California want jails because they provide much-needed jobs.

Although Riverside County has just completed a new jail and expanded others, Larson said the county needs more jail space. She said they remain under a Superior Court order to reduce overcrowding in county facilities.

State Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), a former mayor of Anaheim who has gone on record opposing the Gypsum Canyon site, said he supported Roth’s proposal for a regional jail and would back legislation in Sacramento, and possibly an effort to get state construction funds, if they were needed. He said problems such as who would control the facility still would have to be worked out.

At Tuesday’s meeting in Santa Ana, board members were provided with a letter supporting the regional jail study by Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who was in Europe attending a meeting.

“Orange County is in a crisis,” wrote Wieder, who with Riley and Stanton has voted for the Gypsum Canyon site. “Jail overcrowding, along with court mandates, has resulted in the early release program being implemented.”

That overcrowding has resulted in what is known as the “revolving door” where suspected criminals are booked, then immediately released, she said, adding “I have grave concerns about this action.”

For that reason and others, she wrote, “I am extremely anxious to explore every possibility of building a maximum security jail facility to adequately address the needs of Orange County citizens. I would like to commend Supervisor Don Roth for his foresight and initiative in seeking information on alternatives that will help expedite this very immediate crisis.”

In remarks before the board, Roth said his proposal offers “a new dialogue on criminal justice facilities which may allow Orange County and its surrounding counties to work together on a problem that crosses county borders.”

Unfortunately, he said, the county’s short-term jail expansion efforts have resulted in litigation and no new beds. Long-term jail expansion efforts, he noted, are “meeting with strong neighborhood opposition, a divided board, and litigation which may effectively delay or block efforts to build the Gypsum Canyon jail.”

And that conflict, he said, may “impair” the county’s ability to win voter approval sometime next year of a proposed half-cent sales tax increase to finance criminal justice projects, including the $700-million Gypsum Canyon jail.