Judge OKs Temporary Plan to Ease Crowded Jails

As a stopgap to pare crowding in jails, the Sheriff’s Department was authorized Monday to expand its use of electronic surveillance to allow more in-home custody cases and to reduce by 10% the sentences of less-dangerous prisoners.

The measures are intended to relieve jammed conditions in county jails, including three that have exceeded the legal limit, and to allow county officials time to negotiate with the Navy to borrow a brig, said El Cajon Superior Court Judge James A. Malkus at a morning hearing.

Jails in El Cajon, South Bay and downtown have exceeded court-imposed caps and the detention facilities, systemwide, are housing 128 more prisoners than the jails are supposed to accommodate.

“I want the county to use its very best efforts to meet all the caps at all the facilities,” Malkus said. “At this moment, we have three facilities that are out of sync.”

Under the plan, county officials would purchase 100 surveillance bracelets to be used on prisoners awaiting sentencing. Such devices are now reserved for those already sentenced.

The hearing marked the latest round of monitoring sessions necessitated by two lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society of San Diego. Ten years ago, a judge had ruled that conditions at the downtown jail, crowded even then, were cruel and unusual. At a hearing in June, Malkus asked that the downtown jail population be reduced from 1,000 to 750 inmates. Now there are 792 inmates at the jail.

“We have a ways to go until the overcrowding issue is really dealt with so all the facilities are in compliance with court orders,” said Alex Landon, an attorney for the ACLU. “Obviously, we still have the problem, and, until the problem is dealt with, I don’t think anyone can be happy. . . . We have a systemwide crisis where systemwide we are out of room.”

Malkus asked county officials to report on negotiations with the Navy about using a brig, an option disclosed last week. Malkus set a Dec. 4 hearing to discuss the county’s progress in those discussions, as well as progress in meeting the population caps set for the jails.

“Perhaps by that time you can report on the (brig status), or the court will have to read about this in the newspapers,” Malkus said.

Rear Adm. Grady Jackson told The Times last week that Navy officials were working on different plans that might allow the Navy to temporarily turn over a brig to the county.

“If we can be a good neighbor, we would like to help out,” he said.

Navy officials this week are discussing the possibility of emptying the brig at 32nd Street Naval Base and transferring prisoners to the one at Miramar Naval Air Station. The 32nd Street brig can accommodate 230 inmates; it now has 107.

Another possibility would have the Sheriff’s Department taking over a module at the brig at Miramar. That brig, which can accommodate 400 prisoners, is half-full. County officials are investigating whether they can take over an existing 80-bed, single-cell module at Miramar, put in extra beds and house 160 inmates there, said Nathan C. Northrup, deputy county counsel. “The brig is a substantial possibility.”

Of those two options, the Navy would prefer to lend the 32nd Street brig rather than have military and civilian prisoners under one roof, said Cmdr. Doug Schamp, a Navy spokesman.

The possibility of borrowing a Navy brig comes as county officials struggle to come up with a solution for the crowded jails.

“We’re not just scraping the bottom of the barrel, we’ve got splinters in our fingers,” Northrup said.

In an effort to help the county meet the caps while it searches for a solution, Malkus granted permission for officials to use 100 surveillance devices on people awaiting sentencing, permitting them to be placed in home custody. Those allowed to wear the devices will be carefully screened by officials, who will consider prior convictions, the likelihood of flight and local ties.

The sheriff’s and probation departments share 80 such devices. These, however, have been used on inmates who have already been sentenced. The purchase of 100 more devices will be funded mostly by the county’s drug asset forfeiture fund--money awarded to the county as a result of drug raids, Northrup said.

The $300,000 contract for the devices will be awarded this week, and 30 devices will be delivered almost immediately, Northrup said. The rest will arrive within three weeks, and the Sheriff’s Department is setting aside two officials to monitor the devices, he said.

Although the devices will help, ACLU’s attorney Landon said that they are not a solution because they can only be used on people who can afford telephones.

But Ken Wigginton, assistant sheriff, was more optimistic.

“It’ll save beds by getting people out,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Department was also granted permission to shave 10% of an inmate’s sentence. Officials are now allowed to cut five days off an inmate’s sentence. Sheriff’s officials will track inmates’ sentences using a recently installed computer program.

Sheriff Department officials have not worked out the details, such as how they will select inmates, Northrup said. But similar programs are utilized in Los Angeles and Alameda counties.