Judge Refuses to Block Cuts in Jail Visits : Litigation: Inmates lose round in long federal court battle over their living conditions. Issue will go to state court.

In his first major ruling in the long-running legal battle over Orange County jail conditions, a federal judge Monday refused to prevent the county from slashing visiting hours in order to save money.

“As a matter of policy, a larger visitation schedule is probably desirable,” acknowledged U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor. “But other, conflicting policy needs exist. This court will not attempt to make policy choices that are the county’s to make.”

Taylor added that he “will leave the management of the jail to its professional managers, absent a Constitutional violation.”

Faced with a countywide budget crisis, the Sheriff’s Department last month began cutting its total visiting hours by more than half at the five local jail sites. At four jails, visiting days are being cut from four days a week to two. The scheduling transition will be completed this weekend.

Sheriff’s Department officials said they are unsure how much money the new schedule will save. They have maintained that it meets or exceeds state visiting requirements of two hours a week for each inmate.

“I think this is terrible,” Connie Young, 40, of Orange, said of Taylor’s ruling. Young said she has been visiting her son and two friends of his up to four times a week at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana.

“Didn’t the judge listen or read the depositions” from inmates, she asked. “This is so cruel. It’s going to be devastating to morale.”

Taylor had denied a motion for a temporary restraining order against the visitation policy last month but held a hearing last week to explore further legal issues in the case. The inmates were seeking a preliminary injunction against the new visiting policy, arguing that it violated state law.

The judge acknowledged in his ruling that concerns about long visiting lines, big crowds and lowered morale at the jail are “legitimate.” But he said that does not make the new schedule unconstitutional.

Deputy County Counsel James L. Turner said of the ruling: “I felt we were legally justified in what we were doing.”

But Dick Herman, the lead attorney for the inmates, said he plans now to take the issue to state court to show that a recent state Court of Appeal ruling in a Los Angeles city jail case demands daily visitations for all pre-arraignment inmates.

“There seems no question that state law . . . requires daily visitations and that the county is going to have to come to grips with that,” Herman said.