SANTA ANA : Design, Engineering Pact Let for New Jail

The City Council this week approved a $3.3-million architectural and engineering contract for a proposed new city jail that is scheduled to be built next to Santa Ana Municipal Stadium in the next four years.

The council voted 6-0 to approve a contract with the West Los Angeles firm of Hellmeth, Obata and Kassabaum Inc., which will design the proposed 240-cell jail and an adjacent four-story police administration building.

Police Chief Paul M. Walters said the facilities, which will cost about $50 million, are about 10 years overdue and should serve the city’s needs for the next 50 years. Walters said original plans to build a city jail in 1978 fell through with the passage of Proposition 13, which limited the amount of tax increases.

“I think the new facilities are critical to providing the essential police services to this community,” Walters said. “The present building we’re in is 30 years old with three small holding cells. Since 1986, we’ve been unable to book the majority of the people we arrest because of the severe overcrowding in the Orange County Jail.”

Because of the overcrowding, suspects charged with prostitution, vandalism and minor drug offenses routinely receive citations and do not spend any time in jail, Walters said.

The new 160,000-square-foot jail will enable police to lock up misdemeanor suspects until they are arraigned, or for the duration of their sentence.

In addition to much-needed jail space, the new facilities will also ease severe overcrowding within the Police Department’s administrative offices, which have expanded to the second and third floors of City Hall.

This situation has forced other city departments to rent space several blocks away from the Civic Center area, according to Mary Calderwood, the department’s property and facilities manager.

When the new facilities are completed, the 600-member department will vacate the current police headquarters at 24 Civic Center Plaza.