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Jail Expansion Needed Quickly for Protection of County Citizens

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I am writing in response to your March 8 editorial, “Time Is Now for Jail Expansion.” Your comments are both timely and to the point.

Expansion of the Theo Lacy minimum/medium security facility is desperately needed and is currently our only likely prospect of providing critically needed jail beds in the near future. The county and the city of Orange have been working together diligently to resolve their contentions and allow construction of the seriously needed beds to proceed.

One point in your article does need clarification. You state that, “More than 50,000 suspected offenders have been released early because there were not enough jail spaces.” In reality, since 1987, in excess of 137,000 persons have been released from jail early because of lack of space, and an additional 50,000 are expected to be released this year.

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If all goes well, the new beds at the Theo Lacy (Brancy Jail) won’t be available until sometime in the first quarter of 1991. This early release of suspected and sentenced offenders will continue to pose problems for the community since follow-up has shown that several thousand individuals have been rearrested who would otherwise have been in jail if bed space had been available.

We agree with your statement that new cells are only a partial answer to the problem of crime. Additional efforts aimed at drug abusers must be made. We continue to fight the war on drugs on several fronts. Our Drug Education Unit works diligently to educate the public, especially children, on the dangers of drugs while our narcotics officers seek to reduce the supply on the street.

To date, for instance, sheriff’s narcotics detectives attacking every level of supply have contributed to the confiscation of more than $57 million in drug money and prevented 70 million lines of cocaine from reaching the streets.

We agree with you that additional jail spaces are too badly needed to be held up even a day. The citizens of Orange County deserve to be protected from those in our society who habitually violate the law. Your editorial has helped to remind them of the serious condition that exists in our county and that the “Time Is Now for Jail Expansion.”

BRAD GATES

Orange County Sheriff-Coroner

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