Judge Revisits O.C. Jails, May Cap Population

U.S. District Judge William P. Gray on Tuesday returned for the first time in years to the Orange County Jail system, inspecting two facilities on the eve of a hearing that could dramatically affect the future of law enforcement in the county.

“My job is to make sure that inmates have their constitutional rights,” Gray said as he emerged from the first half of a two-day, systemwide tour. “I’m here to look at the extent to which there is overcrowding.”

Gray, who has overseen the county jails for more than a decade, will complete his tour today and then consider a motion to cap the jail population in the housing units at all five county facilities, along with several other issues. Both sides in the jail overcrowding case say the outcome could have a dramatic effect on the county’s management of its jails.

Moreover, the case is being heard against a volatile political backdrop: On May 14, Orange County voters will go to the polls to consider raising the sales tax by half a cent to pay for new courthouses and jails, most notably a proposed 6,720-bed jail in Gypsum Canyon. That referendum has galvanized the county’s political leadership and split its electorate.

Gray, who returned to the county jails Tuesday for the first time in at least three years, was accompanied by a small entourage of county officials, reporters and lawyers representing inmates.

The group visited the James A. Musick Facility near El Toro and the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, and signs of overcrowding were everywhere. At Musick, hundreds of prisoners lounged in “temporary” tents, erected in 1985 and never removed.

Trailers hauled down from Oregon years ago to relieve overcrowding at the Musick jail still stand, and even though they, too, were meant as temporary shelter, each houses 56 inmates today.

Outside, recreation yards hummed with scores of inmates playing volleyball or horseshoes, and more slept or read on their bunks while loud rock music played over speakers hung inside the tents.

At Theo Lacy, housing units built to hold 208 prisoners housed more than 330; barracks designed for 100 prisoners had 116 full beds--and they were pushed away from one corner which doubles as a day room. Inmates in jail-issue blue overalls played cards, watched television and lolled away the afternoon, surrounded by hundreds more doing the same.

Every bed at Theo Lacy is double-bunked, and the jail typically holds about 200 more prisoners than its designed capacity of 622.

Overcrowding is not unique there or at the Musick jail. Despite programs that grant early releases to thousands of prisoners a year, more than 4,300 prisoners were in Orange County jails on Sunday night, the last day for which a complete count was available. The county’s five jails were built for a total of 3,203.

As overcrowding has increasingly pinched the county jail system, it has taken a toll in unusual ways.

At the Musick jail mess hall, for example, prisoners once picked up their food from a buffet line, with servers doling out the meals from behind glass partitions. But a growing and more hardened jail population has led to an increase in the number of inmate assaults, and a steel shield has been put in place to separate diners from servers.

“We don’t keep that screen open any more,” Assistant Sheriff Jerry Krans told Gray. “With the gang problems we’ve been having, if the wrong color hand comes through, instead of getting gravy on their mashed potatoes, they get it on their ice cream. And then, watch out.”

Later, following the tour of the Theo Lacy jail, ACLU lawyer Dick Herman, who has long represented Orange County inmates, said: “There’s too many prisoners here. . . . That creates more stress and tension. There’s more prisoner-to-prisoner violence, there’s more deputy-to-prisoner violence. There’s more problems with contagious diseases. That’s what happens when you put more people into a space that’s not big enough.”

While even county officials acknowledge that the jails are far over their state-rated capacity, they also point to efforts to expand the facilities during the past several years.

At Theo Lacy, for instance, construction workers Tuesday were busily working on a project to increase the facility’s capacity from 622 prisoners to 1,230. The first phase of that project, which was approved last year after County Supervisor Don R. Roth finally cleared longstanding obstacles blocking it, is scheduled for completion in September.

Gray acknowledged those efforts, noting that “there are many more facilities here today than when I was here before.”

Gray will complete his tour today, visiting the central jails for men and women as well as the Intake/Release Center, all in Santa Ana. And then the fate of Orange County’s jail system will move back to the courtroom, where it has been argued off and on since 1976.

Led by Herman, ACLU lawyers are arguing for several changes, most notably a cap on the housing populations at all five county jails. If granted, that cap would for the first time extend a population limit already in force for men at the Central Jail.

County officials have deep reservations about the ACLU’s proposed cap. Such a limit, they say, could force the Sheriff’s Department to step up controversial early-release programs that annually free thousands of prisoners.

The ACLU is also trying to give inmates better access to law books and guaranteed minimum of 15 minutes for meals. In addition, lawyers for the inmates have asked the court to reduce the time that sheriff’s deputies are given to put an arrested person into a jail cell with a bed. Currently they have 24 hours to complete the booking process, and it often takes between 12 and 18 hours.

During that time, prisoners are kept in holding cells, where they are allotted 18.5 inches of space on concrete benches. Under the ACLU request, the deputies would only be allowed eight hours to find a prisoner a bed or risk a contempt-of-court charge.

“If people have to be incarcerated because of what they’ve done, then we have to provide a place to put them,” Gray said. “That’s the obligation of society.”

OVERFLOWING JAILS

Inmate populations at Orange County jail facilities and the state’s recommended capacity. Totals are for March 31.

Rated Actual Jail Capacity Population Central Men’s 1,219 1,350 Central Women’s 265 279 Theo Lacy Branch 622 801 James A. Musick Branch 713 1,209 Intake/Release Center 384 732 Total 3,203 4,371

Source: Orange County Sheriff’s Department