Dedicated Jail Remains Empty Despite Need : Justice: Lack of funds keeps 1,500-bed prison on Otay Mesa unused by the county’s crowded detention system.

San Diego County’s detention system, consistently ranked as the nation’s most crowded, got a modicum of relief Monday as officials dedicated a pair of jails on Otay Mesa to house 2,000 inmates but conceded that it may be some time before all of its beds can be filled.

In a ceremony tinged with pessimism, Sheriff Jim Roache, the County Board of Supervisors and the chief probation officer stood before a completed but empty 1,500-bed maximum security jail and hailed a new beginning for fighting crime in San Diego County.

In somber tones, however, Roache outlined the deep financial problems that may keep the larger jail from being filled for months even though the county’s system of six jails often exceeds its court-ordered cap.

“This is not the end of the jail crisis . . . or the crisis in the criminal justice system, but hopefully, the beginning of the end,” Roache said. “Maybe we’ll finally put this perplexing problem that has plagued the county for 15 years to rest.”

A second, 512-bed medium security facility several hundred yards away already houses 280 inmates. Those inmates were recently transferred after officials closed the Descanso Detention Facility in Alpine. The remaining beds may be filled early next year.

But the larger facility, ultra-modern in all aspects including centralized food, laundry, medical, religious and counseling facilities under one roof, sits idle with no staff.

“We don’t have the money right now,” Roache said. “Right now, it’s a lot of hope, faith and keeping our fingers crossed.”

To pay for salaries, the county is pursuing a lease arrangement with the U.S. marshal’s office that would allow federal prisoners to use county beds, which is expected to raise about $14 million a year.

Negotiations between the federal government and county stalled in October. In fact, Roache declared the proposed arrangement dead after the two sides could not agree upon a reimbursement rate that the U.S. government would pay to have the county house federal inmates at two of its three facilities.

Over the past month, however, the county has come closer to accepting the U.S. marshal’s offer to pay the county $68 a day per inmate to house each of its 150 inmates at the Central Jail, $55.98 to house each of 400 inmates at Descanso and $58.47 to house each of 100 inmates at the Barrett honor camp near Alpine.

The county had asked for about $10 more per prisoner at the Central Jail and about $3 more per prisoner at Descanso. Both sides agreed to the figure at Barrett.

County supervisors may approve the lease agreement as soon as this month, officials said.

Sometime next year, the Sheriff’s Department will close the El Cajon jail, so poorly constructed that inmates have literally broken out by punching holes in the walls, and the Las Colinas men’s jail, long considered an eyesore in Santee. The 251 inmates in El Cajon and 600 in Las Colinas will be transferred to the East Mesa maximum-security jail dedicated Monday.

The Central Jail will remain open with its court-ordered cap of 750 inmates. About 150 will be transferred to East Mesa, to be replaced by federal inmates. The Vista and South Bay jails will continue to hold 296 and 373 inmates, respectively.

It might be months before the federal money accumulates to such a point that the 1,500-bed jail is in operation, the sheriff said.

Roache and county supervisors are eagerly awaiting a state Supreme Court ruling in January that will determine if the county can use about $350 million in sales tax funds collected after the voter-approved Proposition A referendum of 1988.

Opponents of the tax took it to court, arguing that it needed to be approved by a two-thirds majority, in keeping with the tax-cutting provisions of Proposition 13, rather than by a simple majority.

“Bureaucratic red tape has managed to slow, but not block, progress,” Supervisor Susan Golding said. Keeping criminals in jail “will not be complete . . . until we win back the Proposition A money tied up in the courts. We must continue to invest in our tired, aging system.”

Meanwhile, the city of San Diego is set to open a 200-bed jail in March at the East Mesa site for those convicted of misdemeanor violations, such as assault and battery. It will be privately operated by Wackenhut Corp. More than 700,000 outstanding misdemeanor warrants exist in San Diego County because there is no space to house such offenders.

But jailing misdemeanor offenders will bring its own set of problems, according to Roache and others. Inmates stay in the city-owned jail only until their arraignments--24 or 48 hours--and then the county is responsible for their custody until their sentencing or trial. And, if convicted, the inmates remain in County Jail.

Superior Court Judge James Malkus has been monitoring jail crowding since the American Civil Liberties Union brought two lawsuits against the county alleging overcrowding.

“We’re so crowded in some of our jails that we’re constantly in jeopardy of being found in contempt by the judge,” said Jim Painter, the county’s corrections director. “The county has, in essence, given its word to the judge that we need to open this facility. Hopefully, some day, people will realize that, if they violate the law, they’ll go to jail.”