Navy Might Offer Its Brig to Ease S.D. Jail Crowding : Prisons: The county sees the rental possibility as a way to meet court deadline to reduce inmate population.

In an effort to be a “good neighbor,” top-ranking Navy officials said Monday that they are considering renting the 32nd Street Naval Base’s brig to San Diego County--a temporary move that could ease jail crowding and help the county meet a court-ordered deadline.

“If we can be a good neighbor, we would like to help out,” said Rear Adm. Grady L. Jackson of San Diego Naval Base. “If there are no showstoppers, we’d like to do it. . . . But it will be a tremendous sacrifice for the Navy people involved.”

County officials are expected to present a plan explaining how they are going to ease crowding in the jails Monday in El Cajon Superior Court. The county’s downtown jail now houses about 1,000 inmates, a number that must be pared to 750 under court orders. One of the county’s most attractive solutions is the Navy’s brig, which has a capacity of about 230 inmates, said Sgt. Glenn Revell, spokesman for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

“Our time frame is short. We’ve made an exhaustive and futile search since state prisons are full, as are federal prisons. We continue to explore early release of prisoners and work release--but none have been sufficient to meet the new ceiling,” Revell said. “We are absolutely pleased as can be with the opportunity to even discuss the option with the Navy.”

While many issues remain to be worked out with the Navy, county officials hope to be able to present a general outline of the brig plan at the court hearing Monday.

The possibility of using the brig comes as county officials are scraping the barrel in a desperate attempt to come up with more space for prisoners. A 1,000-bed jail is under construction on East Mesa, near the U.S.-Mexico border. It is not expected to be finished before spring, and there is some question as to whether the county has the money to operate it. In recent months, officials have explored several other ideas, including setting up a tent camp in a remote area.

“This sure beats the pants off putting people in tents in the middle of the desert. It’s quite reasonable to think that we ought to be putting prisoners in good, well-built jails. . . . It’s seldom you see common sense and government moving in the same direction,” said County Supervisor Brian Bilbray. “I am glad to see the Navy is keeping an open mind and recognizing the community crisis is also a crisis for the Navy, seeing as they are part of the community.”

Should the Navy offer the brig, Jackson said, he would expect the county to cover whatever costs were incurred by shifting military prisoners and lawyers to another site. The guards assigned to the 32nd Street brig would be transferred to other assignments, including Shore Patrol and the brig at Miramar Naval Air Station.

Navy officials have not calculated the cost of the proposed move, and it is unclear where the county will find the funds to cover the Navy’s expenses, said Rich Robinson, the county’s director of special projects.

Although the Navy has not offered a firm proposal, Jackson said the Navy is considering several different possibilities. For the Navy, the most practical solution would be to move military prisoners from the brig at 32nd Street to the new facility at Miramar.

The brig at 32nd Street can accommodate about 230 prisoners; it now holds 107 Navy prisoners. At Miramar, the recently opened brig can hold 400 prisoners and is half full.

Rather than co-mingle or attempt to separate civilian and military prisoners in one facility, Jackson said, he would prefer to turn the older facility entirely over to the county. The 32nd Street brig, aging and not fully utilized, was slated for eventual closing.

Some juggling would be necessary. The military inmates now assigned to the correctional custody facility, a halfway house, would be moved to another building, one where training is now conducted.

The proposal came about after Sheriff John Duffy wrote to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) asking for assistance. Wilson discussed the request with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, who, in turn, asked Navy officials to explore the possibilities.

“San Diego is such a great town in the way the Navy is treated here,” Jackson said. “We want to assist in kind, any way we can.”

The move, however, would pose problems for the Navy’s legal staff, which now can walk three minutes and reach the brig to consult their clients. The Miramar brig is about a 30-minute drive from the 32nd Street legal offices. Under military law, prisoners have a right to a hearing within 72 hours of being confined.

“It would have a serious impact on us and our business,” said Capt. Allen C. Rudy, commanding officer of the Naval Legal Service office in San Diego. “But, if it makes sense in the big picture, we would just do it.”

If the 32nd Street brig were turned over to civilians, Jackson said, the Navy would expect the county to handle its own laundry and cooking, since the detention area has its own facilities. Because of military security requirements and because the base has limited parking, Navy officials would not want civilians to visit prisoners on the base, Jackson said, adding that one solution might be to bus prisoners to a county jail for visits.

Jackson also said that Navy officials would expect the county to place low-security inmates in the borrowed brig.

“There are some significant issues: how to get people on and off base? That’s why we have to sit down and talk about this,” Jackson said. “It’s going to be a logistical headache. There are a lot of little issues--but it looks like we might be able to help.”

At a hearing earlier this year, El Cajon Superior Court Judge James Malkus warned that he will issue contempt-of-court citations or impose fines on county supervisors and jail officials if they didn’t remedy crowded jails. In all but the downtown jail, the inmate population has been brought into line with court-mandated population ceilings, Revell said.

The legal wrangle over the jails began 10 years ago, when a judge declared that conditions at the downtown jail were cruel and unusual. In 1988, when the American Civil Liberties Union filed a second suit challenging jail conditions, the county agreed to impose caps on the inmate populations in the county’s seven jails. The deadline for complying with those limits was earlier this year, and county officials requested a delay.