S.D. Grand Jury Says New Agency Should Run Jails

The creation of a new agency to take over operation of the problem-plagued San Diego County jails from the Sheriff’s Department was recommended Tuesday by the county grand jury.

After seven months of interviewing sheriff’s deputies and reviewing different methods of operating correctional facilities, the grand jury concluded that establishing a department of corrections would be the best way to accommodate the county’s growing inmate population, while at the same time saving money. The grand jury recommended that the Board of Supervisors establish a corrections agency and hire a civilian director to run it.

An assortment of problems--among them insufficient space, unsatisfactory management and inadequate supervision of inmates--prompted the grand jury’s evaluation of the county’s detention facilities.

Although blaming Sheriff John Duffy for some of the problems--primarily poor management practices and improper use of available personnel--the grand jury also said the Board of Supervisors has failed to provide Duffy with enough money to adequately operate the jail system.

Grand jury Foreman J. Phil Franklin said that even if more money were available the responsibility of supervising inmates should not be the sheriff’s burden. Properly trained correctional officers would be better suited for the task and could also help rehabilitate inmates, he said.

“Corrections is not a sheriff’s function,” Franklin said. “It is a function for correctional officers who are trained to help educate and help rehabilitate these people, and that’s the way we’re looking at this.

“Once a person is committed to jail, that’s his punishment, but then he should be rehabilitated to join society. Correctional officers are trained much more than sheriff deputies are to do that. Sheriff’s deputies are trained to maintain order and to incarcerate.”

Senior members of the Sheriff’s Department, however, disagreed with how the grand jury defined the department’s law enforcement roles.

“First of all, the sheriff has a legal mandate to run the jails . . . . That’s part of our job,” said Assistant Sheriff Ken Wigginton, who oversees the operation of the jails. “We agree that maintenance is marginal but that’s because the county does not provide the needed finances to run the jails adequately.

“Given the proper resources we can do the job as well or better than anybody else,” Wigginton said. “I do not see any reason why we should create a brand new bureaucracy. That’s not going to solve our problems.”

Wigginton also emphasized the importance of employing some sheriff’s deputies at the jails to investigate and curtail the increasing number of crimes that are occuring within them. He added that the Sheriff’s Department has already been using a new class of officers, the lower-salaried corrections deputy sheriffs to supervise the jails.

But the grand jury criticized the Sheriff’s Department for failing to use more of these specialized officers. In 1989, less than 10% of the department’s jail staff were corrections deputy sheriffs, according to the report.

Franklin stressed that the report was not an attack on the Sheriff’s Department but instead was aimed at making suggestions to lessen the department’s burdens and improve the morale of deputies.

“This report is not a slap in the sheriff’s face,” Franklin said. “If you go to the jails and talk to the deputies you’ll find a great many of them would like to be out on the streets doing law enforcement which is what they want to be doing.

“Correctional officers will not want to go out,” Franklin said. “They’ll understand their role and, as a result, they’ll have more time and patience for the inmates.”

The grand jury strongly supported hiring and training correctional officers to practice direct supervision--having officers mingle with inmates and monitor them in person, rather than watch them from isolated security booths. Direct supervision, the grand jury said, would help reduce rioting and jail breaks.

In addition, Franklin said detention facilities operated by correctional officers who practice direct supervision face far fewer lawsuits. That is an important consideration for San Diego County, officials said, considering that inmates have complained of sheriff’s deputies who belong to so-called “Rambo Squads” that harass and beat inmates.

The grand jury report was praised by Leon Williams, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, who has called for putting a measure on the June ballot that would create a corrections department.

“I am convinced that creating a department of corrections is advantageous to the county of San Diego,” Williams said. “I believe the training of correctional officers will prove to be a significant advantage to the taxpayers of San Diego County.

“I want to make one point clear,” Williams said. “This is not a fight between the board and the Sheriff’s Department. We just want to improve the operations.”

The grand jury’s decision to recommend the creation of a corrections department came in part after reviewing the success achieved by Santa Clara County, which removed control of jails from its Sheriff’s Department and turned it over to a new corrections department in January, 1989.

According to the grand jury report, Santa Clara County began hiring correctional officers in November, 1987, and saved $6 million during the first 18 months of operation in salaries alone. A projected savings of more than $10 million is expected by June.

Grand jury members and San Diego County supervisors have toured Santa Clara County’s revamped jails to evaluate operations as well as to learn how to avoid the negative repercussions that followed stripping of the jails from control of the sheriff. The power shift in Santa Clara has left a tremendous amount of ill feelings between county officials and the Sheriff’s Department.

Under a proposal co-authored by Williams and Supervisor George Bailey, San Diego County is currently conducting a study evaluating the cost-effectiveness of running a jail system with correctional officers. It is believed that lower-salaried correctional officers would also require less training and as a result produce savings for the county. The study is expected to be reviewed Tuesday by the supervisors.

Although he is not opposed to establishing a corrections department, Supervisor Brian Bilbray said that he would consider such a move a last resort. Bilbray said he will not take a position on the issue until the county staff completes its report.

Bilbray, as well as some of the candidates to replace Duffy as sheriff, have supported a proposal that would allow the Sheriff’s Department to continue operating the jails as long as civilian correctional officers are hired.

But the grand jury dismissed such a proposal by questioning whether it would be able to achieve the desired cost savings.

“We want correctional officers to go to their own academy where they would only receive the necessary training, nothing extra to perform other law enforcement duties,” Franklin said. “That’s where the savings would come from. According to Duffy, he’s told us that anybody who works for the Sheriff’s Department would have to go through his training regimen.”

If the board decides to place the issue on the June ballot, and the public approves the creation of a corrections department, Franklin said he hopes the Sheriff’s Department would accept the outcome graciously.

“It is our hope that whoever is running for sheriff today will understand that his duty is to handle law enforcement and that he will say I will cooperate with what the people want,” Franklin said.