City and County Sign Accord on Private Jail

Representatives of the city and county of San Diego on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding that clears the way for the city to build a $6.5-million jail on county-owned land on East Otay Mesa.

The city will now begin negotiations with Wackenhut Corp., a Coral Gables, Fla.-based firm, to build and operate the jail. Funding, however, remains a question.

City officials said the facility is needed because there is no longer space available to house people arrested on misdemeanor charges.

As proposed, the facility would house 200 people who have been arrested but not arraigned on such charges. The city might also contract with other cities for space to house another 200 inmates, according to the memo.

The facility would be the first privately owned and operated jail in California, according to correctional officials.

The County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday agreed to amend its Criminal Justice Master Plan to include the temporary jail. Eventually, the building would be turned over to the county to use as part of a planned jail complex in the area, according to the memo.

The memo also says the city would use Proposition A sales-tax proceeds to pay for construction of the facility. The measure was narrowly passed by voters in 1988, but was ruled illegal last year by a Riverside County judge because it had not passed by the two-thirds majority required. An appeal of that ruling is expected to go to the state Supreme Court, and could take two years.

The county has agreed to reimburse the city for certain costs if Proposition A funds do not materialize and the county subsequently wins support for additional jail funds.

City officials believe the new jail is needed to house an increasing number of suspects who remain free because of a lack of space. The county, however, is concerned that the new city complex would increase the number of inmates, further burdening the county’s already overcrowded criminal justice system.

Besides the Sheriff’s Department, the new facility would increase workloads for the county court system and the public defender’s office, according to the county’s chief administrator’s office.

While California law prohibits the county from contracting out the management of its jails to the private sector, the county counsel’s office recently determined that the sheriff could contract for beds in the city’s proposed jail.