Downtown Jail Less Crowded; 3 Others Still Over the Limit

Officials met a judge-imposed deadline to sharply reduce the inmate count at the County Jail in downtown San Diego, but three of four outlying jails remain jammed beyond legal limits, authorities disclosed at a court hearing Wednesday.

El Cajon Superior Court Judge James A. Malkus, who is monitoring conditions at the jails under two lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, praised county officials for lowering the inmate count at the downtown jail.

But Malkus reiterated a warning that four outlying jails must meet inmate population caps by June 30, calling the crowding at those facilities “troublesome.”

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

The county consistently has maintained that it does not have the money to solve the problem. It has been unable even to find funds to staff a newly built, 1,500-bed maximum security jail on East Mesa, 7 miles east of Interstate 805 near the U.S.-Mexico border.

In 1980, a San Diego judge ruled that any count above 750 at the downtown jail constitutes 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 a medium-security jail also located at East Mesa, have not been brought before the court.

At a hearing June 2, Malkus ordered the county to meet the 750-inmate cap at the downtown jail, which had been hovering for weeks at about 850. He gave the county until June 30 to meet the caps at outlying jails--the men’s jails in Vista, El Cajon and South Bay, and the Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee.

County officials immediately expanded the East Mesa medium-security jail from 296 to 512 beds. Last week, guards moved about 150 inmates from the downtown jail to the medium-security jail at East Mesa, officials said.

The count Wednesday morning downtown was 638 inmates, or 112 under the 750 cap.

The East Mesa medium-security jail held 445 inmates Wednesday, well under its capacity of 512.

At the Vista jail, the count was 865, 72 under the court-ordered cap of 937--and even under the revised court-imposed cap of 886 due to take effect July 1. The Chula Vista jail, however, held 480 inmates, 107 above the court-ordered cap of 373. The El Cajon jail was 92 over. And the women’s jail at Las Colinas was 12 over, according to Sheriff’s Department figures.

Jim Painter, director of detention facility services, said after the court hearing that the Sheriff’s Department is entertaining virtually any idea to meet the June 30 deadline. “It’s the sheriff’s intent to comply with the court order,” Painter said. “We just don’t know exactly how.”

Malkus set the next court hearing in the case for July 15. But Alex Landon, an ACLU attorney, promised that all sides would be back in court before then if the June 30 deadline is not met.