Judge Orders County to Meet Jail Caps : Crowding: Malkus expresses sympathy for officials’ plight but says the time has come. He promises severe consequences if the order is not met.

A Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered San Diego County to meet court-ordered inmate population caps at County Jail downtown by next week, and at outlying jails by the end of the month, saying the time to comply is at hand and that no more delays will be tolerated.

In one of the most significant court hearings during years of litigation over the county’s chronically crowded jails, El Cajon Superior Court Judge James A. Malkus said a failure to meet the deadline would lead directly to severe consequences.

The county will be barred from booking anyone charged with a misdemeanor, no matter how serious, on any day that any jail is over its limit, the judge said. In addition, Malkus said a money-making deal now in place in which jail space is rented to the federal government would come to an immediate halt. He also said he might consider holding county officials in contempt of court.

Malkus, who is monitoring conditions at the county jails under two lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, stressed Tuesday that he understands that the financially strapped county has been hard-pressed to comply with the caps. Budgets are so lean that the county has been unable to open a brand-new, 1,500-bed jail.

“I am sympathetic and empathetic,” Malkus said.

But, he said, after 15 years of court hearings over the jails, the time for extensions and excuses has run out.

The Board of Supervisors “might ask, ‘What can he do? What will he do?’ The answer will not be, ‘Nothing,’ ” Malkus told county lawyers. “I would be reluctant to do it. But contempt can occur.” He added moments later, “I am anticipating full compliance.”

Betty Wheeler, an ACLU attorney, said there is reason to be pleased but also reason to remain cautious.

“We may or may not feel good on July 1,” she said.

National surveys consistently rank the county’s jails among the nation’s most crowded. According to the ACLU, the crowding leads to violence and inhumane conditions at the jails, which are operated by the Sheriff’s Department.

The county has argued that it does not have the money to solve the problem. It has been unable to find funds to staff the newly built, 1,500-bed maximum-security jail on East Mesa, 7 miles east of Interstate 805 near the U.S.-Mexico border, although county officials pledged last month to find the needed funds in the fiscal 1993 budget.

A 296-bed medium-security jail at East Mesa is open, with an additional 216 beds due to come on line soon.

In 1980, a San Diego judge ruled that any count above 750 at the downtown jail was cruel and unusual punishment. In 1987, caps were slapped on the county’s outlying jails. Two newer county jails, the Las Colinas men’s facility and the East Mesa medium-security jail, have not been brought before the court.

In recent weeks, the inmate counts at the five jails Malkus monitors have routinely been over the court-ordered caps, according to legal briefs filed in the case.

On Tuesday, the downtown jail was over its cap by 99 inmates, Vista by 40, El Cajon by 117, South Bay by 151 and the Las Colinas women’s facility by 14, according to Sheriff’s Department statistics.

Three of the five jails have been so jammed that inmates spent Monday night on the floor--58 at the downtown jail, 47 at Vista and 22 at Chula Vista, the department reported.

“Floor-sleepers bother me,” Malkus said. Inmate populations, he said, consistently have been maintained at “a level that’s unacceptable.”

He ordered the county to meet the 750 cap at the downtown jail by next Tuesday and set a hearing for June 17 to make sure the cap is met.

Malkus directed the county to meet caps at the jails in Vista, El Cajon, South Bay and the Las Colinas women’s jail by June 30, saying that date should jibe with the county’s announced goal of opening the 216 added beds at the East Mesa medium-security facility by early July.

After July 1, the judge said, he will not permit anyone charged with a misdemeanor to be booked into any jail on any day that any of the five facilities is over its cap. The only exceptions, Malkus said, would be for offenders deemed “dangerous” and for registered sex offenders.