Roache Urges U.S. to Act on Jail-Lease Pact : Government: County sheriff gives marshal’s office a noon deadline for reaching a satisfactory dollar figure to use county jails.

San Diego County Sheriff Jim Roache warned the U.S. marshal’s office Thursday that he will abandon a proposal to lease local jail space for federal prisoners if the federal government does not agree to the county’s demand for financial reimbursements by noon today.

“I can’t drag this on any longer,” he said. “Either they agree to what we’ve proposed or we terminate further discussions. So far, their offer has been totally unacceptable.”

The implications of scrapping the proposed lease agreement are significant. Roache had been counting on about $20 million from leasing three county jails to the federal government to pay to operate two brand-new, long-vacant jail facilities in East Mesa by the end of this year.

Without the money, the jail openings are likely to be delayed for months, he said.

Late Thursday, Roache said he had gathered members of his staff to discuss the implications of turning down the agreement and trying to find other ways of obtaining money to operate the two new jails, which total 2,000 beds.

The sheriff said he had come up with nothing concrete.

A delay in opening East Mesa stalls efforts to close two other jail sites, the El Cajon jail, which is so poorly constructed that inmates have literally broken out with their bare hands, and Las Colinas men’s jail, which has long been considered an eyesore in Santee.

The Board of Supervisors already had decided to turn over the Descanso jail in Alpine to the county’s Probation Department, which was expected to house 440 federal prisoners. In addition, 150 beds from the central jail in downtown San Diego and 100 more at the Barrett honor camp near Alpine were also to be turned over to the federal government.

The county and U.S. marshal’s office had already reached a lease agreement on Descanso but hit an impasse over the central jail and Barrett, Roache said. Specifically, federal officials have offered a much lower reimbursement per prisoner than what the county expected, although Roache would not discuss exact figures.

“It’s sufficiently far enough apart that, if they are unable or unwilling to pay a reimbursement rate to cover our costs, we’re not going to participate,” he said. “I represent the county and the Sheriff’s Department, and I have to do what’s best for the taxpayers.”

Richard Cameron, U.S. marshal in San Diego, was decidely more optimistic Thursday about his office and the county reaching an agreement.

Although he acknowledged that the precise sum in lease payments had yet to be resolved, the most difficult part of negotiations--deciding where the prisoners would go and how they would be cared for--had been decided, he said.

“All the information in principle has been resolved,” he said. “The cost is not too difficult an issue. My experience is that the statement of work--how the leasing arrangements should be handled--is the key part. We always come to a cost agreement.”

Roache said he has been waiting for an answer for months while federal officials in Washington decide whether to accept the county’s offer.

Until Thursday, the Sheriff had been hoping to open two new jails, the 512-bed medium security jail by early November and the 1,500-bed maximum security jail by mid-December.

The county has long been under a court order to reduce crowding. As of late last month, the seven jails were holding 3,798 inmates. The court-ordered cap is 3,829. With the additional 2,000 beds, county officials had hoped to make use of its extra space and make money at the same time.