Time for Political Courage to Break Out of Jail Stalemate : * Vasquez Can Provide Leadership to Build Gypsum Canyon Facility

Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez now has an opportunity to lead the county past one major obstacle in building a new jail. He can throw his support to the Gypsum Canyon site near Anaheim Hills that the Board of Supervisors selected three years ago on a 3-2 vote.

That will take courage. Some of Vasquez’s constituents live not far from Gypsum Canyon and don’t want a jail in the vicinity. But after years of study, the canyon, a site as far from housing as one reasonably can expect to find in Orange County these days, was determined to be the least objectionable location in the county for a new jail. Environmental impact studies long have been completed, and there has been litigation. What is needed to break the stalemate is a fourth board vote, required to authorize condemnation proceedings against the owner, the Irvine Co. Vasquez should provide that vote.

Vasquez, long opposed to the site, now has a golden opportunity to exercise political leadership. That’s possible because of a new idea put forward by county staff to close down the James A. Musick Branch Jail near El Toro if the new jail is built in Gypsum Canyon. That would help Vasquez, because the Musick jail is in his district and, no doubt, residents near that existing jail would be pleased to have it removed.

So while Vasquez would face the wrath of other constituents near the Gypsum Canyon site, he would be doing something for residents in the southern part of his district--a probable wash for him politically. What’s more, now that the proposal to close the Musick jail is on the table, Vasquez may face the ire of El Toro-area residents if he doesn’t support the idea. There also could be a financial benefit: The sale of the Musick site might help finance the purchase of the Gypsum Canyon site.

The Gypsum Canyon-Musick quid pro quo jail idea came from county staff last week. County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider issued a second and, we hope, final report on a remote desert site in Riverside County. Much time and effort has been consumed by the enticing notion put forward by Supervisor Don R. Roth that Orange County might be able to export its problem. But county staff determined that building and operating a 4,000-bed jail in the desert would cost $2.02 billion over 30 years, nearly twice what it would cost to build and operate a jail in Gypsum Canyon over the same time period. Forget the Riverside idea.

Since 1978, the county has been under a federal court order to reduce jail overcrowding in the County Jail in Santa Ana. Also, in the last decade, tougher sentencing laws have increased the demand for cells. As a result, Sheriff Brad Gates cited and released, or granted early releases, to about 50,000 suspects last year, and there will be more this year. While most have been suspected of petty crimes, Gates recently warned that the releases now put the community at risk.

Gates also has been juggling the rest of the inmates among the county’s other overcrowded jails, a practice that has been challenged in a recent lawsuit. At the moment, the county has more than 4,400 prisoners crammed into facilities designed for 3,203.

So the county is long overdue in picking a jail site. Settling on one is just the first step, but it must done before the county can address the more troublesome problem of financing. To that end, Schneider last week made several recommendations to the board. Among them were directing a team of county officials to review the Gypsum Canyon project design to make it a less expensive project, ordering a search for new revenue and directing staff to develop a comprehensive program of alternatives to incarceration. The board should adopt these recommendations when Schneider presents them Dec. 18.

There are no good choices, but the board now has some room to maneuver in a previously impossible political logjam, especially if Vasquez will stand up and be counted.