Sentenced to Scrubbing

It’s sort of like Dad making Junior wash the car for not keeping his room clean--there’s a certain neatness to it, both literally and figuratively. At the suggestion last week of Supervisor Gaddi A. Vasquez, Orange County is studying an ordinance to impose jail sentences and stiff fines on repeat graffiti scribes who practice their “art” in unincorporated areas. In a twin effort to counteract such defacement, the county is considering Vasquez’s proposal to set up a program in which persons sentenced to jail time, including those convicted of besmirching property, could be assigned to a graffiti-abatement program. Already a local Municipal Court judge has praised the idea as a possible sentencing alternative to alleviate jail overcrowding.

Currently, minimum-security jail inmates are regularly assigned to work crews that clean up flood control channels and roadsides, including painting over graffiti. Vasquez’s program would designate crews specifically for graffiti removal.

Orange County’s 29 cities spend about $1 million annually to rid themselves of unsightly graffiti, using city crews, private contractors and volunteers. A county-run graffiti-removal program could be a less-costly alternative for cities. It also could provide an appropriate way to fit the punishment to the crime.