S.D. County Jail Rental Suggested : Overcrowding: While O.C. problem goes unsolved, new facility near Mexican border stands empty for lack of operating money.

County Supervisor Don R. Roth has floated an idea of having Orange County rent a brand-new jail in San Diego County that is now sitting empty because the county government there doesn’t have the money to operate it.

“It seems ironic that less than an hour and a half away (from Santa Ana), 1,500 jail beds are sitting there vacant” while Orange County is desperately trying to meet its growing jail overcrowding problem, Roth said Wednesday.

Roth first discussed the idea last week with San Diego County Supervisor Leon L. Williams. At Williams’ suggestion, the San Diego County supervisors Tuesday directed their staff to contact Orange County officials and explore the proposal.

The idea faces key obstacles, chiefly the cost of busing prisoners to the East Mesa jail site on the Mexican border, and the civil liberties issues raised by housing them about 95 miles away from their families and lawyers.

Roth concedes that the idea may sound “far-fetched.”

Indeed, just six months ago it might have been quickly brushed aside as unworkable by Orange County officials.

But last October, a decade-old plan for building a new jail in Gypsum Canyon near Anaheim collapsed because of financial and legislative hurdles, adding an urgency to the county’s jail dilemma.

In January, Orange County supervisors voted to move ahead with a plan that could nearly double the occupancy of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange, but city officials there are suing to block it on the grounds that the move violates a pact capping the inmate population. And Roth--at odds with all four of his colleagues over Theo Lacy--has helped lead the opposition.

“If (San Diego) could prove cost-effective, why shouldn’t we look at it?” Roth said. “We don’t have anything else.”

The idea has circulated this week on the fifth floor of the County Hall of Administration among county supervisors and their staff, and most officials appear to be taking the proposal seriously.

“It’s appropriate that we look at this,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton said, “but I don’t know where it’s going to go.”

Said Marilyn Brewer, an aide to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who works on jail issues: “Under these circumstances, every option deserves consideration. We can’t afford to close the door on any ideas.”

Asked about the proposal, County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider said simply: “All I want to know is how much.”

How much Roth’s idea would cost will be the key subject for negotiation if talks progress, officials in San Diego and Orange County agreed.

At the direction of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, officials in the county administrator’s office are now drafting a letter to Orange County officials to open discussions on the subject.

“It’s on the top of my list of things to do,” said Chuck Pennell, project manager for detention facilities in the San Diego county administrator’s office.

Like Orange County, San Diego County is struggling with a rapidly growing inmate population in its jails and with court orders to address the overcrowding problem. Last October, the county completed a $79.6-million, medium-to-maximum security jail in East Mesa on the county’s southern border, but officials weren’t able to open it because of a shortage of operating funds.

The county considered leasing part of the 1,500-bed facility to the federal government to house its prisoners, but those talks broke down because of legal problems over public bonding for construction, San Diego officials said.

Officials estimated at the time of those discussions that it would cost them a total of $78.10 a day to house each prisoner--including staffing, meals and other costs, Pennell said. That figure will likely provide a starting point now for talks with Orange County.

“The beds are there,” Pennell said. “It’s just a question of who can afford to use them.”

Supervisor Williams, who first discussed the idea with Roth earlier this month at a meeting of County Supervisors Assn. of California members, said San Diego will want to be adequately paid for any rental and to leave itself enough flexibility to house its own inmates if fiscal times change.

“We don’t want to fill the facility just to fill it,” Williams said. “But if we can’t use it, let’s see if we can get some good out of it.”

Perhaps the strongest opposition to the plan could come from Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates.

Gates could not be reached for comment Wednesday on the San Diego idea, but Orange County officials predicted that he will likely attack it strenuously, since he has argued that the only real long-term solution for the county’s inmate housing problem is to build another jail.

Times staff writer Leonard Bernstein contributed to this report.