Sheriff’s Refusal to Share Jail Services Criticized

San Diego’s police chief accused County Sheriff Jim Roache Wednesday of refusing to cooperate with efforts to open a new 200-bed pre-arraignment jail by denying the city access to county-operated laundry, kitchen and computer facilities.

Police Chief Bob Burgreen told a subcommittee of the San Diego City Council that Roache and the Sheriff’s Department will not allow the Police Department to share its amenities even though the 200-bed jail is part of a larger county-run jail system.

An irritated Roache noted late Wednesday that the county is financially strapped as it is, without having to help the city “with something they failed to adequately address.”

“Look, it’s not our facility,” the sheriff said. “It’s a separate, distinct jail. The city is funding it. The city has a contract with the private operator. We are overburdened and overworked right now and we do not have time to meet their operational needs.”

The latest round of trouble between the two governments annoyed City Council members and administrators, who are trying to open the jail by May 1 to house inmates who await sentencing. Of the 200 beds, 64 are to be set aside for prisoners already sentenced.

“The county is putting every obstacle in our way,” Councilman Ron Roberts said. “There is no excuse for this turf battle. They are reneging on a promise for us to use their facilities.”

Burgreen did not volunteer the information about the disagreement but acknowledged that Roache was not cooperating when directly asked by Roberts. The chief also said that sheriffs throughout the state are opposed to allowing private operators to run jails, as the city is doing, because it always has been a traditional sheriffs’ responsibility.

For several months, the county has had problems trying to open a 1,500-bed maximum-security facility because of a lack of funding. A second, county-run 500-bed medium-security jail next door is partially full.

In the meantime, the city has contracted with Wackenhut Corp. to run a 200-bed jail on the same county-owned land for about $4.5 million a year.

Until the smaller jail is open, thousands of those who receive misdemeanor warrants are given citations, sign promises to appear in court but never show up. Some 700,000 misdemeanor warrants are outstanding in San Diego County and millions of dollars have not been collected.

City administrators say the county has signed an agreement pledging cooperation. County officials say there is no such agreement.

“If the city is willing to pay $4.5 million to lock up more criminals, it’s in the best interest of both parties to cooperate,” City Manager Jack McGrory said. “We have agreed to pay full recovery costs plus overhead. It’s not costing them a thing.”

But sheriff’s officials say they don’t care about the reimbursement. In the midst of losing jail operations money collected under Proposition A, a pending investigation into jails by the U.S. Department of Justice and a Superior Court judge’s order to relieve overcrowding, “we are in no position to take on added responsibility,” said Dan Greenblat, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department.

Tension between the two government agencies heightened considerably following a decision in December by the state Supreme Court declaring the Proposition A sales-tax collection unconstitutional.

While the city believes it has been innovative in opening the pre-arraignment jail with its own money to help solve the jail crisis, the county contends that San Diego city leaders are abdicating their responsibility to provide more money for a troubled criminal justice system.

City officials believe it would be less expensive to run the 200-bed jail if the county provided food and laundry services, as it will for the adjacent 1,500-bed and 500-bed facilities.

In addition, the city is asking that it be allowed to use the computer system the county uses to store booking information and other data about inmates. McGrory said sharing the system would make it easier for judges to sentence inmates and that the idea has been approved by the county’s information systems supervisors.

Roache said he is unaware of such approval and is surprised that Wackenhut, which operates several jails in other areas of the nation, would not have its own system.