Group Unveils 10-Point Plan as Alternative to Jail Tax Hike : Measure J: Gypsum Canyon foes urge expanding existing facilities, furloughs, probation camps and a regional lockup.

Opponents of Measure J, the jail tax initiative on the May 14 ballot, outlined Friday a 10-point plan to alleviate the county’s jail overcrowding without raising the sales tax.

At the same news conference, Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter, a leading spokesman for Taxpayers Against J, lashed out at Sheriff Brad Gates for what Hunter called “scare tactics” and “lies.”

“Gates is using lies to cloak the one real issue in this campaign--money,” Hunter said, “billions of taxpayer dollars that will be poured into the most expensive solution to the county’s jail overcrowding crisis.”

Gates was out of town and unavailable for comment, his spokesman said, adding that the sheriff is the only one from the Sheriff’s Department who responds to Measure J questions.

Hunter, a former police officer, described the 10-point plan as “cost-effective solutions” to the jail overcrowding issue. It includes expansion of existing county jails, more city jails, work-furlough programs, construction of halfway houses, privatization of the jails and construction of a regional jail in the desert.

Other points in the plan include more detoxification facilities, adult probation work camps on county-owned land, house-arrest programs, construction of lower-security facilities for sentenced inmates and construction of holding cells in county court facilities.

Summing up, Hunter said, the proposal calls for development of an adult work camp, “exploration of privatization and possible conversion of existing state prisons into county jails to be operated privately on a regional basis.”

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, who supports Measure J, said later that the plan is like “a road map of the last 10 years. We have been through each one of those and they have been fully explored.”

Capizzi said no matter how the jail overcrowding problem is viewed, the only reasonable alternative is a new jail in Gypsum Canyon near Anaheim Hills. “We need more prison beds,” he said.

Measure J, if it passes, would raise the county’s sales tax from 6 1/2 cents on the dollar to 7 cents. The revenue raised, an average of about $343 million annually for 30 years, according to supporters, would go to build a 6,720-bed regional jail in Gypsum Canyon.

“We could do all this without a sales tax increase,” said Bob Zemel, an Anaheim resident and co-chairman of Taxpayers Against J.

Zemel told reporters that the cost estimate by Gates and his supporters of building a Gypsum Canyon jail--about $1 billion--is computed with a land cost of $50 million. The property is owned by the Irvine Co., which plans a housing development there.

“Right now the Irvine Co. wants $810 million for the land,” Zemel said. “That’s quite a big difference, and I don’t think you have to be a Supreme Court judge to see there is going to be a lawsuit--a very costly lawsuit. . . . The handwriting is on the wall.”

Zemel, a mortgage company president, said that even if the measure passes it will not create enough revenue to build a jail and operate it.

If Measure J is approved by the voters, “this will just be the first bit,” he said. “Then, they will have to have another measure to actually complete the project. Of course, they will have another measure to operate it (the jail). I guess they will call that Measure O. I think the citizens of this county are going to run out of money and run out of alphabet at the same time.

“These solutions are cost-effective and they are immediate solutions,” Zemel said of his group’s plan to relieve the overcrowding. “We don’t have to tax the citizens and taxpayers of this county another half cent.”

The county’s five jails typically house more than 1,300 prisoners than they were designed to hold. Gates claims that 850 people accused of misdemeanor crimes are released each week to comply with federal court limits on overcrowding.

“Everybody in this room knows that Brad Gates is using scare tactics. . . . Don’t be fooled, don’t be frightened by the sheriff telling you that the rapists, muggers and robbers are being released early.” said Hunter, adding that most people know that those convicted of serious crimes go to state prisons, not county jails.

“For too long in this county the sheriff has resisted innovative ideas to stop the jail overcrowding. There has been too much empire-building,” Hunter charged.

In a related development, campaign finance reports filed Friday with the registrar of voters office show that Taxpayers Against J reported raising $11,045, the bulk coming from development companies and other Anaheim-based businesses. Hunter personally gave $600 to the group. According to the report, the group has not spent any of the contributions.

The organization supporting Measure J--the Committee to Keep Criminals in Jail and organized by Gates--reported raising $163,160, $139,000 coming from the group Citizens to Preserve Our Quality of Life in O.C., a nonprofit, nonpolitical group formed two years ago by Gates to explore the issue of new jails, according to the committee’s consultant Eileen Padberg. She said between 20 and 30 individuals who usually support Gates raised about $240,000, and Gates transferred the balance to the Committee to Keep Criminals in Jail when Measure J went on the ballot.

Smaller donations to the Committee to Keep Criminals in Jail came from a variety of developers, lawyers, investors and business people. The group spent $167,942 on, among other things, surveys, postage, mailers and consulting fees, reports show.