Limiting Jail to Santa Ana Called Racist

What promises to be one of the nastier battles in the June 5 election got under way Tuesday, with local politicians launching a campaign against what they call a “cynical” and “racist” ballot measure that would place all future county jails in Santa Ana.

“Today begins a campaign in this community against Measure A,” Santa Ana Mayor Dan H. Young said at a news conference at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, which was attended by about 150 schoolchildren, parents and community leaders. “I have been in politics for almost 15 years, and I don’t think that I have ever seen a proposition go to the ballot that is more bigoted, more biased, more wrongheaded than Measure A.”

Measure A, the Centralized Jail Initiative, is sponsored by homeowners from Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills who oppose a planned county jail in nearby Gypsum Canyon. In addition to restricting future county jails to Santa Ana, Measure A would require that they be placed more than 600 feet away from schools--a distance that measure opponents disparage as too little.

Also lashing out at the measure Tuesday were County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, Santa Ana Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr., Santa Ana Unified school board member Rob Richardson and Anaheim attorney Wylie Aitken.

“The fact is, there aren’t any logical (jail) sites in Santa Ana,” said Stanton, whose supervisorial district includes the central county city. “The question is moot.”

Young said the proposed legislation is a ploy to dump future jails in a densely populated, largely Latino city that will be outnumbered at the polls by more affluent, whiter cities to the north and south.

“I don’t think there’s any coincidence that they picked Santa Ana,” Young said. “They thought they could get away with it politically.”

Rick Violett, head of Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail, which placed the measure on the ballot, dismissed the racism charges and said the issue is one of fiscal responsibility.

“They’re the ones that appear to want to play up the racist point,” Violett said. “I’ve never said anything like that, and I don’t believe anyone has ever said that on behalf of the group.”

A new county jail, Violett said, should be built at the Civic Center in Santa Ana because that is the county seat and government center.

“That’s what the Civic Center is all about,” he said. “That’s where the courts are. . . . You expect to have those kinds of things when you move next to an urban center.”

Measure A opponents, however, point out that the county has already spent $7 million on the Gypsum Canyon jail site, which was chosen by the Board of Supervisors in a divisive battle three years ago. If Measure A is approved, they say, it will be fought in court and further delay the construction of a new jail.

The county does not now have a way to pay for the Gypsum Canyon jail, Violett pointed out--but his opponents say that the same would hold true for any other county jail.

Stanton and other opponents also say that Measure A’s language would preclude the possibility of building a regional jail in the Riverside County desert, an option backed by Board of Supervisors Chairman Don R. Roth and now under study by both counties.

Violett disputed that assertion. A memo from County Counsel Adrian Kuyper said that while the measure probably would prevent Orange County from building its jail outside the county, it may not have that effect on a joint-powers authority comprising more than one jurisdiction.

Young said the “No on A” campaign has donations or pledges of about $25,000, including $4,000 from his own political war chest and $5,000 from Pulido’s. School board member Richardson, who is also an aide in Stanton’s office, said the committee will have to raise at least $35,000 to $40,000 to win over voters from outside Santa Ana.

“It’s real tough to do that,” he said. “We’re saying, ‘Let’s do what is right, and let’s place conscience above policy.’ ”