City Dedicates 200-Bed Otay Mesa Jail : Relief: The new lockup is expected to handle video arraignment procedures for up to 68 people a day.

San Diego’s detention system got a boost Tuesday as city officials dedicated a new 200-bed pre-arraignment facility on Otay Mesa that has triggered mixed reactions from members of the city and county’s law enforcement and legal community.

“It’s not going to be the end of all the problems law enforcement has in this community . . . but it’s a beginning and a very positive beginning,” City Atty. John Witt said. “We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and this time it’s not a train.”

The city has contracted with the Wackenhut Corp. to run the facility for about $4.3 million a year, part of which will help fund 72 staff positions needed to operate the jail.

Before opening the new facility, thousands of those who received misdemeanor warrants were given citations and signed promises to appear in court, but never showed up. About 700,000 misdemeanor warrants are outstanding in San Diego County, and millions of dollars have not been collected.

When operating at capacity, the jail is expected to hold video arraignments for up to 68 people a day, which could add 15,000 cases annually to 40,000 cases now handled by the city’s court system.

Because some of the defendants will be ordered held in County Jail after their arraignments, the new facility will have some “spillover” effect on the county’s financially strapped jail system, Sheriff Jim Roache said.

“I don’t know what kind of impact it’s going to have, we’ll have to wait and see,” Roache said. “There is no way I can prepare any backup plan.”

For months now, the county has had problems trying to open a 1,500-bed, maximum-security jail on Otay Mesa because of a lack of money. Last week, the County Board of Supervisors approved funding to fully open a second, county-run 500-bed medium-security jail next door to the maximum-security jail.

San Diego City Councilman Ron Roberts has used the county’s failure to open its maximum security jail as a political issue against Supervisor Susan Golding, one of his rivals in the race to succeed retiring San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor.

“We shouldn’t be building this, it’s not a city responsibility,” Roberts said. “But we’re not going to stop and watch what’s happening, we’re going to do something about crime on our streets.”

Golding counters that the City Council has failed to put an adequate police force on the city’s streets. She notes that the city jail is on county land and the county has an option to buy the jail after 44 months.

Mayor O’Connor cited the jail’s opening as an example of leadership and vision on the part of city officials at Tuesday’s dedication ceremony.

“In September, we made a commitment we would have our jail opened before the county, and we have kept that commitment,” O’Connor said.

The jail is scheduled to book suspects by Sunday and begin holding video arraignments by Tuesday, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. and are expected to last about four minutes each.

The predicted increase in misdemeanor arraignments also has prompted the county to hire four new public defenders and the city to hire five deputy city attorneys and create eight additional support staff positions.

“I don’t think anybody really knows or feels really comfortable with what’s going to happen,” San Diego County Public Defender Frank Bardsley said. “It remains to be seen whether, once they get to court, they’ll have space to be put in County Jail.”

Chief Deputy City Atty. Susan Heath echoed Bardsley’s concern over limited jail space in county facilities: “It’s a piece of the solution, it’s not the solution.”

The Wackenhut Corp. now privately operates 12 jails throughout the world; by the end of the year, they are expected to house 5,000 inmates.

“This is not something you have to be fearful of,” Wackenhut President George Zoley said in an interview. “We’ve guaranteed the city that this facility will be professionally managed . . . and we really don’t envision any problems.”

The freshly painted jail will contain 200 beds, of which 64 will be reserved for post-arraignment inmates.