ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Jail: So Let’s Hear a Better Idea

The Orange County Board of Supervisors’ support for Gypsum Canyon as the site for a 6,720-bed jail is slipping. Why? Times change. Alliances shift. Resolve weakens. Now two of the board members who voted four years ago for the site in the Anaheim Hills, Harriett M. Wieder and Thomas F. Riley, have expressed doubts, and the site’s two opponents, board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez and Don R. Roth, are moving in for the kill.

If Vasquez and Roth are successful in persuading Wieder and Riley to withdraw their support, that would leave only Supervisor Roger R. Stanton as a champion of Gypsum Canyon.

But shooting down a project is the easy part. The urgent questions emerging for the board are these: What alternatives is it prepared to move forward on and, even more important, how will members then build the political support needed to identify the funding for those alternatives? That’s an area in which the board sorely failed when it selected Gypsum Canyon.

When the site was chosen in 1987 on a 3-2 vote, Gypsum Canyon was deemed the best solution to the county’s need for added jail space. But nothing further happened because a fourth vote was needed to condemn the land, owned by the Irvine Co. The situation became worse after voters last May resoundingly turned down a proposal to raise sales taxes by half a cent to pay for the $1-billion jail.

Some county staffers believe that a combination of measures, ranging from double-bunking some cells to building a smaller jail in Santa Ana, could be used to add jail space at a lesser cost than Gypsum Canyon. However, taking that route would require a huge commitment on the part of the board.

For example, it would mean the board would have to move forward on many fronts--which likely would generate political opposition from all directions. At the same time, the board would have to think more creatively about how to finance jail projects.

In short, it would take leadership-- something that so far has been in short supply on the board when it comes to resolving the jail crisis.