Police Supervision Suggested for City Furlough Program : Detention: Security concerns prompt city manager to investigate giving the centers a closer look.

Concern over the city’s failure to monitor the security of private work-furlough centers prompted San Diego’s city manager Thursday to investigate whether the Police Department should be involved in checking the centers.

“Some interesting issues have been raised about security, and we want to make sure that these places are properly regulated,” Jack McGrory said. “These are correctional facilities and maybe they require a closer look from the Police Department.”

McGrory said he was referring to articles in The Times this week that exposed shortcomings in the supervision of the city’s three private work-furlough centers. All three accept low-risk convicts who can keep out of the county’s jail system by agreeing to work and abide by the rules of the facilities. Residents also pay a $25 daily fee for room and board.

At least eight felons assigned to the centers, however, have been arrested for a variety of crimes, including possessing drugs and weapons. The city’s Planning Department is responsible for supervision, but does not require the centers to provide a list of residents or check on whether convicts even show up.

By October, the city plans to hire a full-time administrative inspector, whose salary would be paid from a fee collected at each facility.

McGrory said the inspector was to have been a code enforcement specialist, but Thursday said he would consider installing a San Diego police officer in the post or someone who works in the police station.

He has asked his management assistant, Gonzalo Lopez, to investigate the possibilities.

“In my mind, I’ve got to consider whether we should have a police officer inspecting these centers or whether it should be a code compliance officer working in the Police Department,” he said. “It could be a sworn officer or a non-sworn position, like a community service officer.”

The city has three centers: one with 87 beds on Boston Avenue, the Pacific Placement Facility; one with 84 beds on Pacific Highway, the Mid-City Work Furlough; and one with nine beds on 25th Street. A fourth center, Sorrento Valley Counseling Complex, with 438 beds, is planned for this fall.

“We have got to make sure that all of the facilities are properly secured,” McGrory said. “The ideal situation would be for county probation to regulate the facilities, but the county has concerns about getting involved.”

The city’s private centers are the only three in the state that are not under contract to county government. In Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara counties, the probation department supervises the centers.

San Diego County’s work-furlough program is staffed by probation officers, who get copies of judges’ orders committing convicts to the county. Probation officers also make regular checks to see if convicts are at work and screen those sentenced to county work-furlough. The city does not screen its work-furlough applicants.

Ernest H. Wright, president of Pacific Placement Facility and managing director of the planned Sorrento Valley Counseling Complex, said he asked for county supervision 3 1/2 years ago. He applauded McGrory’s suggestion to assign an officer.

“I have no problem with any kind of city or county or state or federal compliance,” he said. “We already meet every standard available, except for the county, and we’re looking forward to a county contract.”

The county’s work-furlough programs have as many, if not more, problems than private centers, Wright said.

“People placed in county programs don’t show up and walk away, and they test dirty in urine samples, too,” he said. “The only difference is that, when there is a violation at our place, we notify the judges. At the county, probation officers decided whether to reprimand them or not” and don’t necessarily have to tell the court.

City Councilwoman Judy McCarty said Thursday that supervision of private work-furlough is a “county responsibility,” but, since the centers are supposed to be regulated by the city, “we have to make sure they are good neighbors.”

McCarty said that, although she supports private work-furlough as a means of accommodating the overflow from crowded county jails, she wants to make certain “we’re not setting up problems in communities.”