COMMENTARY ON JAIL OVERCROWDING : Simple Sense Could Unsnarl Orange County Lockup Logjam : The alternatives to this long-running spat all call for less emphasis on politics, ego and empire-building.

City and county elders wring their hands, walk around in small circles, cast their eyes skyward and cry out for a new jail.

The keeper of the old jail tells the populace that he is forced to release dangerous criminals because he simply has no place to keep them.

Local judges keep sentencing miscreants to the jail with little or no regard for the lack of space at the local bastille.

A federal judge says none of that is his concern, but humane treatment for all Americans, even jail residents, is.

Law enforcement leaders issue fearsome forecasts about a breakdown in social order and an increase in serious crime if somebody doesn’t get off his duff and build a new jail.

Wait a minute. Where is all this happening? Surely not Orange County, California, where there are more builders and developers per square foot than anywhere else in the world except maybe during annual Las Vegas Home Show & Builders Convention.

Oh, you say, the problem is not how to build a jail but where to build a jail. And there is that nagging issue of how to pay for it.

The first part of that problem is occasioned because each county supervisor stubbornly insists upon protecting his turf and torpedoes any plan that calls for a jail to be built anywhere near his district. Sort of a reverse pork barrel syndrome. And then the supervisors have the nerve to blame the people for having a NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude.

The second part of the problem comes when the politicians decide to simply tax the money part of the problem away and the people, fed up with politicians anyway, say the hell you will.

In the meantime, if Sheriff Brad Gates and Paul Walters (chief of the Santa Ana police) are to be believed, dangerous criminals are being run through a revolving jail door to the point that, quoting Walters: “No longer can we expect besieged police to prevent and control crime by using the cite-and-release method.”

Of course, there are alternatives, steps that could be taken to immediately alleviate the overcrowding problem. I will avoid taking cheap shots and suggest that we start by leaving the homeless in Santa Ana alone, and even avoid comment on the administrative prowess (or lack thereof) of the sheriff. I will assume that every arrest is a legitimate one and that the jail is run at peak efficiency at all times.

One last assumption, however, is most difficult to make. That is to assume too that common sense does not drain from the psyche of all politicians and high-level bureaucrats once they go to work. Once that last hurdle is cleared, there are alternatives to Orange County experiencing, again quoting Walters, the “degradation experienced by many . . . crime-ridden urban cities and counties.” I offer a few:

* Jail Arraignments: Starting tomorrow, assuming the judges and sheriff could put ego and power trips aside for a moment, a judge could put his (or her) robe under an arm, walk across Flower Street and arraign every prisoner for every court in the county. And they could do it every day of the week. They wouldn’t even need an expensive video system, and while it might take a few bucks to convert a room for the court’s use, it would save hundreds of thousands of transportation dollars.

* Use the Cities’ Fair Share Wisely: Now that the cities have begun--as they should--to pay their fair share of holding costs for each prisoner they put in Orange County Jail, the supervisors should compel the sheriff to put at least part of this windfall into a fund to build a new jail. Why not all of it? Perhaps this is a viable alternative to the sheriff’s latest and chilling conclusion that: “I think we can solve this (jail financing) problem with this (increase in the sales) tax.” Perhaps, after all, a new tax is not the end-all or cure-all, even in the short run.

* Sobering-Up Stations: Legislation mandates that drunks be taken from the mainstream of the jail system, but that is not being done in Orange County. Without comment on why it isn’t, suffice it to say that there are dozens of unused city and county facilities that could be used as sobering-up stations. Abandoned schools for one. These stations could be strategically placed in the North, South and Central districts, and all walking or driving drunks could be taken there for blood testing, record checking, processing and release. As it is, 95% of such arrestees are cited and released anyway.

* Let George Do It: And, I don’t mean George Bush. The supervisors, to solve the long-range jail problem, should immediately invite bids from private industry to build and maintain a jail system for the county. The new jail could be on the moon, for all the board cares, as long as it’s done for a certain price and within court-mandated guidelines. Private prisons are already in place in this country with great success. It’s amazing how private industry seems always to be able to do what bureaucracy cannot--and turn a profit. This solution obviates the recent (and repugnant) sales-tax increase asked by the sheriff.

Of course, the success of any short-term or long-range program requires that everyone involved put less emphasis on politics and ego- and empire-building and more on solving the problem at hand. Perhaps this, the last of the hurdles to be cleared, will prove to be the hardest one of all. Let’s all hope it is not impossible.