City May Be Getting a Brig in a Poke, Navy Says

The Navy’s brig at 32nd Street Naval Base, touted as a solution to the crowding of the county’s jails, may need hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovation--which is one reason Navy officials considered tearing it down, Navy officials said Tuesday.

The rundown building would need considerable work to refurbish--possibly costing as much as $875,000, one Navy source said.

The need for such an expensive renovation, however, could kill the county’s hopes of using the brig.

“If the numbers are anything like that, I am sure we can find other ways to solve the problem. If you haven’t got money, that amount is prohibitive,” County Supervisor George Bailey said.

But the brig remains the county’s best option--even if the price tag is high, some county officials said. And the county would consider investing money in the brig if it looked like the county could use the facility long enough to make the investment worthwhile, County Supervisor Brian Bilbray said.

“We are not looking for the Ritz. We are just looking for a place to lock up people until we acquit or convict them,” Bilbray said. “If the brig needs that much correction, why are they using it now?”

County officials had approached the Navy in past years about borrowing a jail for housing prisoners and had always been thwarted, said Leon Williams, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors. But this time, Williams said, “I think it will work.”

Navy officials from Washington and Hawaii met in San Diego this week to discuss the possibility of lending the brig to the county, which is under pressure to meet a court-ordered deadline of Dec. 4 to relieve jail crowding. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy Marianne B. Drew, along with other officials, Tuesday toured the 230-bed brig that is now holding 107 prisoners.

After this week’s tour and meetings, Navy officials are expected to hammer out a plan that will be reviewed by Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett III. Garrett will eventually decide whether the Navy will loan the brig to the county.

Navy officials have not yet decided the fate of the 32nd Street brig. They had intended to either tear it down or renovate it, creating a waterfront holding facility conveniently close to the military court, said Cmdr. Doug Schamp, a Navy spokesman.

The Navy had planned to transfer prisoners from the 32nd Street brig to the one at Miramar and then “use the time to make an engineering assessment as to what was cost-effective,” Schamp said. “The situation with the county is bringing this to a head sooner than anyone wanted.”

Supervisor Bailey and other officials said the county is also considering a module of jail cells at Miramar Naval Air Station’s brig. That newly constructed brig, which can hold 400 prisoners, is now half full. County officials would like to take over an 80-bed module in the modern facility and install another 80 beds, said Nathan C. Northrup, deputy county counsel. Under this plan, the Navy and county prisoners would be housed in different areas, though under the same roof.

This possibility, however, is not favored by the Navy, said Rear Adm. Grady Jackson, Commander of the San Diego Naval Base.

“Co-locating is just not an acceptable solution for the Navy, and Miramar is not where the Navy is looking,” Grady said.

Navy and county officials agree that, whatever plans are developed must be wrapped up relatively quickly. The county is expected to return to court Dec. 4 to report on its progress in reducing jail crowding.

The populations at three county jails, including the downtown one, now exceed court-imposed caps. Systemwide, the jails are housing 128 more prisoners than dictated by court limits.

At an El Cajon Superior Court hearing Monday, Judge James A. Malkus extended the county’s deadline in conforming to a limit at the downtown jail. Malkus had asked that the downtown jail population be reduced from 1,000 to 750--a goal that the county was not able to meet. There are now 792 prisoners downtown.

This week’s hearing marked the latest monitoring session necessitated by two lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society of San Diego. Ten years ago, a judge ruled that jail crowding constituted cruel and unusual punishment. In the years since then, the county has struggled to correct the problem and abide by court-imposed population limits.