East Mesa Jail Must Be Opened : But judge shouldn’t force cash-strapped county into making rash decisions

Two events in the past two weeks have raised the pressure on San Diego County to open the East Mesa jail and get the number of inmates at other jails down to a level that is safer for guards and more humane for inmates.

First, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit to proceed that was filed by an 18-year-old inmate who claims the county is responsible for his jailhouse rape because the rape was the result of overcrowding. Whether the suit is settled or goes to trial, the Supreme Court action ups the ante for the county.

The second was the frustration voiced last week by Superior Court Judge James Malkus, who oversees the county jails’ compliance with court orders to limit the number of inmates. His exasperation with the county’s inability to solve the overcrowding problem is shared by many San Diegans.

Malkus has threatened to force the county to open the 1,500-bed maximum-security portion of the new East Mesa jail, which the financially strapped county does not have the funds to staff.

We hope the court does not resort to the measures Malkus suggested last week: overtime duty for sheriff’s deputies and the recruitment of off-duty police officers and citizens to staff the jail on a volunteer basis. Both ideas are fraught with problems, as Malkus knows. Paying overtime would cost about $1 million more over the next few months than paying additional guards straight time. And obtaining volunteers is both unlikely and risky.

But Malkus sure caught the county’s attention.

The judge’s frustration is understandable, given the fact that the county had no contingency plan for funding jail expansion if the jail tax was overturned, which the state Supreme Court did in December.

The county’s options are grim. Scores of county employees would have to be laid off to open the jail without additional funds. That’s on top of voluntary furloughs, a hiring freeze and a moratorium on deputies’ vacations. This would not sit well with workers who agreed to the voluntary furloughs to avoid layoffs.

The jail situation may have reached the point of no return. East Mesa must be opened, and soon, even if it means some layoffs. But we hope Judge Malkus will give the county the rest of this fiscal year to figure out a way to do it, and not force the issue within the next few weeks.